Main Street Struggles to Match Wall Street in K-Shaped Economy

America’s corporate landscape is taking on the same distinctive K-shape as the country’s consumer market. The relentless profit and stock gains on Wall Street are bypassing Main Street, where an increasing number of small businesses are struggling.

Amy Leinbach’s business, Big Bee, Little Bee, is having to contend with increasing import costs on the products she manufactures in China.

Photographer: Photographer: Eli Hartman/Bloomberg

High interest rates coupled with President Donald Trump’s zigzagging trade policies are depressing employment and stalling sales at the nation’s 36 million small businesses. There’s less data for this universe of companies than there is for publicly listed ones, but look here and there, and you’ll see signs of distress. Small-business bankruptcies are ticking up, while loan delinquencies are at ...