Private Credit and the Death of Public Markets
The quiet inversion of American capital formation
We have privatized not just the returns, but the information itself.
The number of publicly listed companies in the United States peaked in 1996 at roughly 8,000. Today, it stands below 4,000. The decline is not a statistical curiosity — it is a structural transformation of how American businesses fund themselves, and who gets to participate.
Private markets now manage over $13 trillion in assets, a figure that would have seemed fantastical two decades ago. Companies stay private longer, grow larger before listing — if they list at all — and increasingly turn to direct lenders rather than bond markets.
We have privatized not just the returns, but the information itself.
The Democratization Paradox
The rise of private capital has coincided with an era of unprecedented retail access to public markets through commission-free trading and index funds. Yet the most dynamic companies — the ones generating outsized returns — are increasingly inaccessible to ordinary investors.
The Information Asymmetry
Private markets operate without mandatory disclosure. There are no 10-Ks, no quarterly earnings calls, no short sellers publishing research. This opacity is a feature, not a bug, for the managers who profit from it.