In 1996, there were 7,300 public companies in the United States. Today, that number has dropped to 4,300 . One might assume that, in an age of rapid technological advances, global expansion, and record-breaking stock market highs, the number of public companies in the United States would have skyrocketed over the last three decades. It seems intuitive—more growth, more opportunity, more companies going public. However, this trend is not merely a statistical anomaly; it reflects a broader...