The number of new businesses in the US is falling off a cliff

Fewer new businesses were created in the last five years in the US than any period since at least 1980, according to a new analysis (pdf) by the Economic Innovation Group (EIG).. just 20 counties accounted for half of the country's total new businesses. All of them were in large metro areas.

...

"It's hard to put into scale the collapse of new business formation. We have no precedent for that rapid and steep of a collapse," said John Lettieri, co-author of the report and co-founder of EIG, in an interview. "It will have a ripple effect in the economy. You‘re going to feel that impact five, 10, and 15 years in the future."

... New business formation over the past five years tracked very closely with access to capital, particularly venture and other forms of risk capital, says the report. Of the top 20 counties, 13 were in just three states (California, New York, and Texas) with ample access to such money. That shift has given highly educated urban dwellers another advantage at the expense of everyone else, a disparity polls suggest is fueling the rise of Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump among working-class, rural Americans.