As customers have more sources of finance, Banks' lending profits will be squeezed, forcing them to diversify into capital-market activities like underwriting.

Even today, after the bursting of the stock-market bubble, American venture-capital firms—which are in the business of betting on the future—dwarf the firms from all other nations.

Cedar Point set out to market itself as "The Roller Coaster Capital of the World" with several record breakers over the next decade.