The private-markets party reaches fever pitch

THE BEST pauses in music are those that are least expected. As a banging tune rises in a crescendo, just a second of silence, followed by a return of the beat, can send a dance floor wild. Such is the effect covid-19 has had on private markets. In March 2020, when lockdowns sent DJs home everywhere, the beat suddenly stopped. But the pause did not last: after a tepid 2020, this year has been positively riotous. “To call it a boom feels like an understatement,” says Marcus Frampton of APFC, Alaska’s sovereign-wealth fund.