The Incredible Shrinking Market: Three Decades of De-Equitization—And the First Signs of a Turn
Published on August 3, 2026
There are 38% fewer companies listed on U.S. exchanges today than at the peak in the mid-1990s. The forces behind that decline—regulatory burden, the abundance of private capital, and the quiet disappearance of mid-sized public companies—are structural, not cyclical.