Is a home décor boom hiding inside the housing market freeze? Plus data center NIMBYs creating an opening for new winners in the AI trade, and slimming corporate margins.

Highlights from the week of August 14 – August 20, 2026.

Last week, America learned that a Fed staffer pointed out investors are receiving remarkably little extra compensation for owning stocks instead of bonds, and everyone immediately went back to talking about inflation. Very normal. Very fine.

After a week in which 30-year Treasury yields hit a 25-year high, we decided to go to the source and talk to Mr. Bond himself. The following conversation has been edited for clarity.

​​Recent liquidity events related to portfolio companies in which PIF invests through its private equity holdings​.

Last week, America got the sort of economic data that leaves everyone nodding and squinting at the same time. Inflation cooled. Stocks rallied. Then, retail sales unexpectedly fell. The economy spent most of the week telling investors to relax and ended it with a warning about the consumer. The result was modest gains by most major stock market indexes and a small loss in the U.S. Agg.

The latest inflation report gave investors the one thing they crave more than returns, more than yield, and more than a Bloomberg terminal that doesn't look like it was designed by a Soviet air traffic controller in 1987: no surprises.

Macro volatility and AI debt issuance headlines have been creating the noise; strong fundamentals and elevated rates have created the returns.

Are consumers becoming more tolerant of roaches, or simply less tolerant of rising costs (even for pest control)? Plus, hunting for the next leg of AI winners.

Last week, America learned payrolls shrank 23,000 in July (versus the 83,000 gain economists expected) and revisions to May and June data erased another 103,000 jobs. Investors heard the news and piled money into stocks anyway, with the confidence of the guy who insists gas-station sushi is safe.