I recently saw this graph in the Economist describing the number of publicly- traded companies in the US. The chart surprised me some. I really didn’t have a preconceived notion of what trend to expect for the number of public companies, but I was surprised to see the relatively rapid decline.

After looking at this, my mind immediately jumped to a similar graph on a topic closer to my day-to-day: the number of banks in the United States.

Before getting into the finance space, I did not know that the number of banks in the US had been declining over time — and certainly not at this sort of pace.

Seeing the consolidation of both of these markets really makes me wonder how many more aspects of our economy and society are similarly consolidating.