We might have chosen a more cheerful year to use the stock market as a metaphor to describe power in Kansas City, but it would be hard to find one more revealing. For although surging equity markets create the illusion of real wealth and power, a declining market strips away illusions and reveals the core power foundation on which the city is built.

The general public may tend to favor the entrepreneurial class during times of easy prosperity, but it is during less buoyant times that the fluidity of the American experience manifests itself most clearly.

There are no guarantees to wealth and power. Even those families that have enjoyed their perquisites for years can be undone by bad decisions during those lean years in which all decisions had better be good ones.

A bear market has forced many power elite regulars to bear up to a new and humbler set of circumstances. There is perhaps no better example than the Greens, the proprietors of the multi-generational company that has come to be known as Aquila. In our last rendition of the Power Elite in 2001, Richard Green, then chairman, and Robert Green, then president, were riding high. "This worldwide energy company," we wrote," is second only to Sprint among regional companies." Since then, both Greens have assumed the role of CEO and resigned it as the company's stock has lost more than 90 percent of its value. Richard Green has since reclaimed the CEO position and hopes to rebuild Aquila.

Speaking of Sprint, the fortunes of its two most powerful agents, CEO and Chairman Bill Esrey and President Ron LeMay, have likewise come undone. The Sprint board recently took the opportunity presented by the pair's tax imbroglio to force them both out. The tragic shame is the smear campaign they have received regardless of the enormous wealth they've helped to build throughout the corporation and region. How quickly this is forgotten in the media's hysterical rush of post-Enron gotcha-ism. The fact is that Esrey and LeMay might have more character than all Disney properties combined. As we wrote in 2001,"Local Sprint employees and their families comprise a city the size of Olathe." Should we now scorn the pair because Sprint only supports a city the size of Prairie Village?

As Chairman on the Sprint Board, Irv Hockaday found the gumption to dismiss Esrey and LeMay, but for all that it is still not the way he would want to be remembered. Nor must he cherish his memories on the board of Aquila. Since retiring from the CEO post at Hallmark, Hockaday has, however, continued to be a force in the corporate world, serving as a member of the board of directors for the Ford Motor Company, Dow Jones, Inc., and Estee Lauder Companies.

No fall from grace was as sudden or as unexpected as that of Michael W. Gullion. The Chairman and CEO of Leawood-based Gold Banc Corp. built the highly successful bank from virtual scratch before being forced out recently by his board for diverting $2.5 mil. of bank's capital for his personal benefit. The problem for the bank is that Guillon is also the principal shareholder. The shake-out will not be pretty.