Some of those things are interesting, but they're hardly very influential at this point. Are there fewer local bank branches today as compared with 10 years ag

Some of those things are interesting, but they're hardly very influential at this point. Are there fewer local bank branches today as compared with 10 years ago? Maybe (though I'd like to see the data), but is it due to online banking or just industry consolidation? Are there fewer realtors? Almost certainly, but it's also almost certainly all about the real estate bubble popping, and virtually nothing to do with Redfin. Are local and community colleges being killed by straighterline.com? Ummm...no. Maybe someday, but not now. College attendance is actually probably up as compared with 10 years ago. Prosper.com and other P2P lenders are interesting, but 99.9% of people have never heard of them and still rely on credit cards and banks for unsecured credit, so they're hardly killing anything.