If you look at long term asset allocation, public equity investment has generally suffered at the expense of alpha products, real assets, and private equity. Page 10 of the 2010 Yale Endowment annual report provides a stark example.

If the best companies no longer want to go public and/or the best investors no longer spend as much time in the public markets, we have a tiered investment world where only the richest have access to the best ideas. That does not sound like good public policy; on the other hand, I am not sure if restricting the development of non-public equity markets is a prudent one either.

Will the public markets become anachronistic in our investment time frame? Is that a positive or negative development for investors and society?