With a total of 284 U.S. operating company IPOs in 2014, the U.S. securities market might appear to be on an upswing – after all, this was its biggest year since the dot com era ended in 2000.  Nonetheless, this figure does not compare with what it should be given our annual 3% GDP growth rate, which would have required 520 IPOs if the dot com era is used as the baseline.  Furthermore, the U.S. is no longer the world leader in IPOs – it has fallen to #2 in large IPOs and #12 in small IPOs, and has experienced a decrease to only 5,000 listed companies from 9,000 in 1997.  The shrinking U.S. IPO market brings associated potential problems: lackluster employment opportunities, decreased innovation and failure of the U.S. to sustain itself as a market leader.
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