We talk about IPOs (initial public offering, when a company sells its shares to the public for the first time) allof  the time. Twitter, Facebook, the Container Store — but in reality, most of us can’t usually be a part of them. The freshest of the fresh new shares are reserved for institutional investors (mutual funds, pensions) and very wealthy individual investors. 

With all the attention on Twitter’s initial public offering today, it’s worth a look back at the hot tech IPO of November 2011 as it reports earnings:  Groupon, the daily-deal site. Groupon stumbled out of the gate, with low profits, lots of competitors, and high costs.  It’s been in turnaround mode ever since.

Standards of living do not necessarily track with GDP, and many people can be doing worse, even as GDP climbs. A nation research and advocacy group says we should think about growth beyond quarterly reports from the government, and more in terms of what they refer to as “equity.” And, no, they’re not talking about stocks.