Private Equity Funds, McDonald's and Adam Smith

This is kind of shocking.

There are more private equity funds (19,000) in the US than McDonald’s locations (14,000). Capital formation has become a franchise model!!!

I think as we see GenZ's share of the economy grow, we will see forces that not just change what brands are and how they are valued, but actually how stakeholders fit in the economic engine/system. More on what the next-gen economic model might be and how that happens later.

For now, it's enough that Adam Smith's model has evolved in a sometimes haphazard, sub-optimized way that will be at odds the economic gravitational pulls of a massive GenZ economic cohort in a AI-intensive, botnet intensive social media networked world. Definitely keeping next-gen AI-infused David Ricardo. Has anyone really seen the uninterrupted, pure market dynamics 'invisible hand' lately?

Tip of the hat and thanks to:

Azeem Azhar for that PE Funds bit in his usual stream of brilliant updates
Kyla Scanlon for getting me thinking about economics epistemology again
Jenna Fizel and her amazing design studio for reminding me the far edges of things are usually not what you think they are