The ability to foresee the creation of important specialty competitors requires no more than an ability to generalize from other industries, such as retailing, in which consolidation has existed side by side with the emergence of successful specialty businesses. Another opportunity open to the financial sector is the continuation of the impressive trend toward globalization and international consolidation.
However, the distinguishing feature of the current business cycle has been a large increase in the number of the latter group – i.e., those who have concerns about their employment – and its size has not decreased notably even in the recovery phase. This could weigh on the U.S. economic recovery ahead.