Since World War II, financial institutions have come to own a far greater proportion of stocks than private households have. Just after the war, individual citizens owned 90% of the stock market; by 2006, they owned only 30%. And the trend is not restricted just to the United States. It spans the globe.
This piece originally appeared in Stanford Business Insights from Stanford Graduate School of Business. To receive business ideas and insights from Stanford GSB click here: (To sign up : https://www.gsb.stanford.edu/insights/about/emails ) ]