As any visitor to Graceland knows, taking care of business is one of America’s strengths. Or rather it was. The rate of business creation (“firm entry”) has been in decline since the reported death of Elvis Presley (see chart). Calculations by the Brookings Institution, a think-tank, show that business deaths (“firm exits”) now exceed births. Josh Lerner of Harvard Business School suggests the trend reflects the dominance of big firms in retail and services: think what Walmart or Amazon do to Main Street. Whatever the cause, the numbers are further evidence that America has mislaid some of the juice that makes it different.
