Yes, it's definitely a sign of increasing inequality, on at least three fronts. On the high side, there's loads of money sloshing around with—especially since

Yes, it's definitely a sign of increasing inequality, on at least three fronts. On the high side, there's loads of money sloshing around with—especially since the end of ZIRP—no "safe" place to put it. They "need" ways to guarantee high returns over relatively short periods in order to justify their continued access to a never-ending supply of yachts that have other yachts docked inside them; vulture capitalism is a reliable way to do that for people with absolutely no scruples or understanding of (or care about) long-term effects. On the low side, much like DangitBobby noted, there's much less money available to either buy the business of someone interested in retiring and passing it along, or to start your own. The third side is that moneyed interests have captured government to an unprecedented degree—even before the current administration came in, with its "burn down everything that helps people and hand the ashes to the wealthy to sift through for loose change" policies. All the protections that should be stopping private equity from doing these things are reliant on government to step in and actually impose meaningful penalties for harming people and small businesses, and it has been systemically incapable of doing so for far too long.