As reported in The Wall Street Journal, recent research from the University of Chicago’s Center for Research in Security Prices indicates that more than half of all publicly traded companies have disappeared in the last 20 years. In 1997 there were 7,355 exchange-listed firms; today there are less than 3,600. According to the report, most of the decline occurred from 2000 to 2012.

Is this the twilight of American capitalism? Or just evidence of a sleep-walking, regulation-entangled economy?