In this episode, Lucas and Luna explore why the middle class rarely benefits from the biggest wealth-creation event in finance: the initial public offering. They trace the history of how IPOs shifted from a broad-based opportunity to an institutional game, using the 1999 IPO of Goldman Sachs and the 2004 Google auction as contrasting case studies. Lucas unpacks the SEC's Rule 144A and how it allowed companies to delay public listings, while Luna questions whether retail investors are shut out by design. The hosts discuss the rise of SPACs as a middle-class loophole, the impact of direct listings like Spotify in 2018, and why the median IPO allocation for individual investors has fallen from 30% in the 1980s to under 5% today. They close by asking whether the current private-market boom is permanently locking the middle class out of early-stage company growth.

#IPOs #WealthInequality #MiddleClass #RetailInvestors #GoldmanSachs #Google #Spotify #SPACs #Rule144A #SEC #DirectListing #InvestmentBanking #InstitutionalInvestors #WealthGap #StockMarket #Economics #FexingoBusiness #BusinessPodcast

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