Over the past 30 years, the number of publicly traded companies in the U.S. has been sliced in half, falling from a peak of ~8,000 in the late '90s to just ~4,000 today.

That stat shocked me. I knew IPOs were a slow drip, but I didn’t realize that the number of companies being taken private was far out pacing the number joining the NYSE and NASDAQ ranks.

Today we discuss:

* Three structural changes in the capital markets that brought us to this point

* The rise of private credit

* How companies staying private changes your job as an operator or CFO

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