BuzzMachine blogger Jeff Jarvis nabbed CEO Richard Edelman after a discussion at Davos, to see if “trust” will fall even farther from the dismal numbers just revealed in Edelman PR’s 10th annual Trust Barometer.

Sixty two percent of adults in 20 countries trust companies less than they did a year ago. There was discussion of the media too–trust in newspapers fell to a scant 34%.

So what to do, what to do? Edelman advises companies to clean up ahead of regulation, embrace shared sacrifice and lead from the front of the army. This is textbook advice–textbook theory redlined by market forces every day lately. Existence is the payoff these days, over having merely a decent quarter.

On another note, Adweek’s Brian Morrisey points out via Twitter, that the session Jarvis writes about unveiled a new catch phrase for the PR industry: private sector diplomacy.