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DAILY STACK
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Five stories ranked by Real-Life Impact
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Thursday, August 13, 2026
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Today's Thesis: Inflation came in at 3.4% but your wages only grew 3.2%, Meta heads to trial over addicting your kids, the world's largest investor just warned the rally won't last, the US is 10 million homes short and the Midwest is losing its price edge, and AI infrastructure stocks surged on earnings that had nothing to do with inflation.
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Only one company survived this screen
Pretend you're Washington for a minute.
You need a gold project to put federal money behind. Your screen has four boxes.
On American soil. Fully permitted. Big enough to matter. Small enough that your money transforms it.
Now run every gold company in America through those four boxes.
The majors fail box four. A $3 billion loan is a rounding error to Newmont.
The juniors fail boxes two and three. No permits, or no scale.
Exactly one company checks all four.
That's not my opinion. That's what a federal board concluded on May 21, 2026, when it voted unanimously to lend that one company roughly $3 billion.
Congress was notified. Nobody objected.
Final papers are expected in the second half of this year.
It trades at about 1/50th the size of Newmont. For now.
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1
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Your wallet
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CPI 3.4%, wages 3.2% — you're losing ground
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Inflation is 3.4%. Your raise was 3.2%. You're falling behind.
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The July CPI came in at 3.4% year-over-year yesterday, exactly matching the forecast and down a tick from 3.5% in June. Core inflation eased to 2.5% from 2.6%, and the monthly gain was just 0.1%. But the number that matters most for your wallet didn't make the headline: wage growth came in at 3.2%, meaning your paycheck is growing slower than prices for the first time since 2022. Gas is $4.04 a gallon nationally, airline fares are up 25.5% over the year, and medical care rose 0.4% in a single month. The inflation rate is cooling — but not fast enough to stop your purchasing power from shrinking.
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The other side: Core inflation at 2.5% is within reach of the Fed's target, and if energy prices keep dropping, wage growth will catch up by the fourth quarter.
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2
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Your vote
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29 states, first trial of its kind
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Meta heads to trial over addicting your kids to Instagram
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Meta is heading to trial against 29 state attorneys general who allege the company knowingly designed Instagram and Facebook to addict children. The case could result in the first nationwide restrictions on how social media platforms target minors — including mandatory age verification, algorithmic limits, and default screen-time controls. If you have kids under 18, the outcome will shape what those platforms are allowed to show them. It's the largest coordinated state action against a tech company since the tobacco lawsuits.
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The other side: Meta says it has invested billions in safety tools and already offers parental controls — the company argues the states are overstepping into content regulation.
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3
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Your money
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Record $184B profit, chief says don't count on it
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The world's largest investor just warned that the rally won't last
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Norway's sovereign wealth fund — the world's largest investor at $1.8 trillion — posted a record $184 billion profit in the first half of 2026, then its chief publicly warned against expecting the streak to continue. The fund's returns have been driven by the same AI and tech stocks that dominate your 401(k) and most target-date retirement funds. When the manager sitting on $1.8 trillion hedges his language, it's worth asking whether your own allocation is ready for a reversal. If the smartest money on the planet is telling you not to get comfortable, check your portfolio before the market does it for you.
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The other side: Sovereign wealth funds are structurally cautious by design, and a $184 billion profit means the strategy is working — the warning may simply be managing expectations, not signaling a crash.
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4
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Your home
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10M home deficit, Midwest losing its edge
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The US is 10 million homes short. The Midwest was your backup plan — it's heating up too.
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The US is short roughly 10 million homes after nearly two decades of underbuilding that started with the 2008 financial crisis, according to Bloomberg. The Midwest — the last region where median-income buyers could afford a home — is losing its price edge as coastal buyers priced out of their own markets migrate inland. Milwaukee, Indianapolis, and Columbus are all heating up with rising competition and shrinking inventory.
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The other side: Higher rates have slowed demand enough to keep prices from spiking in most Midwest markets, and new construction is gradually increasing supply.
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5
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Markets
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CoreWeave +18%, SMCI +9%, AI capex soaring
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AI infrastructure stocks surged on earnings that had nothing to do with inflation
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CoreWeave surged 18% Tuesday after raising its annual capital spending forecast to $35 billion to $39 billion, while Super Micro jumped 9% on better-than-expected results — both signaling that AI infrastructure demand is accelerating independent of inflation data. If your portfolio has any tech exposure, the AI capex boom is now driving returns on its own timeline.
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The other side: CoreWeave's spending is funded largely by debt, and if AI revenue growth doesn't match the capex ramp, the bubble deflates fast.
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Off The Stack
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PPI drops at 8:30 a.m. today — forecast 4.9% YoY, down from 5.5%. — Factory-gate prices; if it cools alongside CPI, the September hike debate is over.
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American Airlines' AI is kicking passengers off connecting flights they could still catch. — Rebooking algorithm overrides gate agents; no fix announced yet.
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Bob Iger and Joshua Kushner agreed to buy the LA Lakers for a record $12.5 billion. — Largest sports franchise sale in history; says something about where money is going.
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Daily Stack · Five stories ranked by Real-Life Impact
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