The fate of the U.S. economy comes down to one thing: access.
If every individual who wants it and every company that needs it can’t access capital markets, both wealth and job creation skid to a stop—and with them, so too does the power behind the U.S. economy.
By and large, we’re pretty okay and handing access to those looking for it—any old fool could download an app and begin trading stocks. 
But like a first attempt at homemade croissants, things could always be better. We’re facing a gaping wealth disparity problem and a pressing inequality of basic education. The first step in increasing access to public capital markets is solving for those...not an easy feat.
Adena Friedman—president and CEO of Nasdaq, the first woman to lead a global stock exchange, and today’s Business Casual guest—hasn’t let it deter her.
Adena’s been helming Nasdaq since January 2017, and during her tenure, she’s focused intently on issues of access—access for companies, access for investors, and access in general to capital markets.
In this episode, Adena will explain how we increase access in the right and healthiest ways. To her, allowing more companies and people to tap into public capital markets will necessarily level the playing field for individual and institutional investors.
But whose responsibility is it to ensure that increase in access happens? Listen to find out.