The U.S. economy is the most powerful and formidable in the world—and lots can be done to improve it. While economists focus on inflation and interest rates and politicians consider options through the lens of an election year, there’s a worrying trend that needs reversing if we are to maintain U.S. dominance and continue enjoying the benefits of our economy: There are fewer public companies in the U.S. than ever before.
JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon raised this issue in his annual letter a couple of weeks ago. In the mid-1990s, there were nearly 8,000 public companies listed in the U.S. Today, there are half as many, and at the current rate, we’ll see that number halved again by 2044. “The total should have grown dramatically, not shrunk,” Dimon wrote.
This reduction has been staggering in speed and scale, and it must be addressed, so entrepreneurship and innovation can flourish. Exit opportunities are critical to the promise of American innovation, and neglecting them will be to our collective detriment. It’s not only changing private markets but it’s also bad for our economy at large. It’s high time we reopen our public markets and incentivize the sort of innovation on which our economy depends.
