“The American stock market has been shrinking. It’s been happening in slow motion — so slow you may not even have noticed. But by now the change is unmistakable: The market is half the size of its mid-1990s peak, and 25 percent smaller than it was in 1976.” In this case, we’re talking about the total number of companies on the stock market. The NYT explains why getting small could be a big deal.

+ “To understand this rapid concentration of wealth and income, we must also consider the metastasis of corporations into colossal trusts, happening at the same time as the government shirks its duty to protect consumers and workers.” Current Affairs on The Rules Of Monopoly. (Or why private equity managers got Park Place and Boardwalk, while you got stuck with Baltic Avenue…)

+ “In a stock buyback, a company repurchases its own shares from the broader marketplace, usually through the open market. That leaves the remaining shareholders with a bigger chunk of the company and increases the earnings they reap per share, on top of the regular dividend payments that companies make to shareholders out of their profits.” From Vox: Stock buybacks, explained.