[A. Pole]

One of the most widely believed myths in America today is the belief that corporations are an inherent part of capitalism. Concomitant with this is the idea that big corporations and big government have an intrinsically hostile relationship and that the stock market is a free market. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Capitalism was already well entrenched and the Industrial Revolution was complete when the U.S. Supreme Court radically altered the concept of the corporate charter in 1886 by ruling that the Southern Pacific Railroad that was a "natural person" under the U.S. Constitution.
[...]
The 1886 ruling trumped these efforts, fulfilling Thomas Jefferson's prescient fears. In a letter to George Logan written on Nov. 12, 1816, he wrote:

I hope we shall take warning from the example and crush in it's birth the aristocracy of our monied corporations which dare already to challenge our government to a trial of strength and bid defiance to the laws our country.

[...]

Great find!

[William Terrell]

Individuals can exist without corporations but corporations can't exist without individuals.

[GOP_1900AD]

All of that said, the US model of capitalism will never, and can never feature the levels of government intervention and economic guidance experienced in Europe after the fall of the nobility. In Europe, even after the nobility's fall, and even after the various "equalizing" anti monarchical revolutions of the late 18th and early 19th centuries, the bourgeoisie were largely uninterested in investing in corporations and therefore the nation states had to fill the void. Our model grew up very differently, and at this point, it is essentially the general public who "run" corporations. The government is a bystander with little but a rare police role, ala Enron and Digital Crossing. So, if anyone wants to bemoan "corporate power" in the USA, we have met the enemy and he is us. In order to improve corporate behavior, it is the thinking of sharholders that must be targetted. Now, as for the matter of non US shareholders, that is a very interesting converation. Are we too lenient in terms of allowing overseas investment in our securities markets? When does foreign ownership of securities become a threat to national security?