(FORTUNE Magazine) – THE YEAR IS YOUNG, BUT ALREADY IT has been a most glorious season for business. True, the economy is a delicate flower, deficits are worrisome, and interest rates are stirring. But all that pales compared with the regulatory relief afforded to big bidness by the friendlies in the U.S. Congress. We've been blessed with tort reform and a swift quashing of a proposed increase in the minimum wage. Now it appears bankruptcy reform is only a presidential pen-scribble away. All before the Ides of March! The mind fairly reels with what could be accomplished by the August recess. Legalized insider trading! Elimination of corporate taxes! Of all taxes!

Before we go a-lobbyin' those points, let's review what we've accomplished so far, starting with tort reform. This one is pretty simple: Too many Americans had been suing companies, and it had to be stopped. The pharmaceutical industry is particularly vulnerable right now. The trial lawyers have convinced some people that simply because a drugmaker removes a medicine from the marketplace, that means it's unsafe and that the company is liable. Bellywash! For years the cigarette companies have fought spurious allegations too. If it weren't for the trial lawyers, we'd still have those catchy Marlboro commercials on TV. And we've seen the irreparable damage to the economy caused by banning those ads. Next thing you know there won't be any pharma ads. Or any commercials at all. You see the logic, right?

Common sense prevailed in blocking an increase in the minimum wage from $5.15 an hour--where it's been since 1997--to $7.25 over two years. To me the very notion of a minimum wage smacks strongly of Mao. But be that as it may, if we're going to have one, the best thing we can do is make sure it never moves a penny higher. Of course every kid at the country club knows the argument against increasing the minimum wage: It leads to layoffs. Also, it's dangerously inflationary to pay employees a living wage. With a raise, Joe Lunchbucket might be able to afford some franks to go with his beans. And we all know what that would do to hog prices! I've got to hand it to the Senators, though. While the minimum wage has been held down for eight years, Senators Foghorn and Leghorn et al. have seen fit to raise their own pay seven times since 1997, from $133,600 per year to $162,100 in 2005. That's an increase of more than 21%. And you know what's strange? Last time I checked they haven't had to lay any Senators off. (Still 100!) Makes sense that there's no money left over for an increase in the minimum wage.

As for the bankruptcy bill, too many Americans have been copying big business--and they shouldn't be allowed to do that. Folks just don't understand that companies that declare bankruptcy--like US Air, Winn-Dixie, and Kmart--are living, breathing entities. And a bankrupt company like, say, Interstate Bakeries (they make Ho Hos and Ding Dongs) is more important than any one citizen, regardless of whether or not he or she makes Ding Dongs for a living. You follow? Another problem is that personal bankruptcies were cleaning out the credit card industry. According to CardWeb.com, profits in the card biz grew from $12.9 billion in 1995 to $31.6 billion last year. That's only a 144% increase in a decade, which is a scandal. Earnings should have been up at least 300%!

I guess what I'm suggesting is a return to the Gilded Age, when it was "anything goes" and everything did. The way we're stifling wages, ending personal bankruptcies, and blocking lawsuits, soon even corpulent guys in top hats may be coming back into style.

ANDY SERWER, EDITOR AT LARGE OF FORTUNE, CAN BE REACHED AT ASERWER@FORTUNEMAIL.COM. READ HIM ONLINE IN STREET LIFE ON FORTUNE.COM AND WATCH HIM ON CNN'S AMERICAN MORNING AND IN THE MONEY.