What if a severe US Midwest drought triggers record federal crop-insurance and reinsurance payouts?
A severe US Midwest drought triggers record federal-crop-insurance and reinsurance payouts, straining the program and the private reinsurers backing it as yields collapse across the Corn Belt.
how we built this number — every step
The class rate is measured from our dated, sourced event library (decade-normalized Poisson — the full table is public at base_rates.json). The variant’s share within its class is the analyst’s editorial call, published so you can audit it. A wider range means thinner precedent. Full recipe: methodology · scored at Reality Check.
The butterfly cascade
How this trigger trickles across markets, left → right — the root shock, its first‑order moves, then the ripple effects. Drag any node; tap a market for its real price history.
Resolution timeline — how this probability is moving
Our model's odds (gold) over time vs the crowd's (Polymarket, blue), from the past toward the 1–3 years horizon. Each dot is a real macro event that nudged the probability — green pushed it up, red pushed it down. Tap a dot for the source. The gold path is an illustrative reconstruction anchored to today's estimate — real dated events, not a live re-estimate history.
What it would mean
If this plays out, it is a mixed shock. A severe US Midwest drought triggers record federal-crop-insurance and reinsurance payouts, straining the program and the private reinsurers backing it as yields collapse across the Corn Belt. The trigger decomposes into signed root‑shocks — Corn ▲ · Climate/crop supply ▲ · Credit spreads ▲ · Food inflation ▲ — which propagate through our causal graph to the markets below.
If it happens — the markets it would move
Biggest moves first. Projected moves are cascade-model priors; hist A–B% = what comparable past events actually did (measured abnormal returns), and model prior · unmeasured marks markets with no analogue backing yet. Tap any market for its price history.
| Market | Class | Projected move | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Corn CORNon Hyperliquid 📈 chart | Commodity | ▲ +1.1% hist -0.37–+1.0% · other way -1.11% (n=12) |
| 2 | Wheat WHEATon Hyperliquid 📈 chart | Commodity | ▲ +0.7% hist -0.4–+1.85% · other way -3.04% (n=12) |
| 3 | High-yield credit HYG 📈 chart | Rate | ▼ -0.2% hist -0.44–+0.04% · other way -0.41% (n=12) |
| 4 | Semiconductors SMHon Hyperliquid 📈 chart | Equity | ▼ -0.2% hist -0.55–+1.23% · other way +1.08% (n=12) |
| 5 | Natural gas NGon Hyperliquid 📈 chart | Commodity | ▲ +0.2% hist -3.99–+1.58% · other way +17.7% (n=12) |
| 6 | Financials XLF 📈 chart | Equity | ▼ -0.2% hist -0.35–+0.06% · other way +0.1% (n=12) |
| 7 | MicroStrategy MSTRon Hyperliquid 📈 chart | Equity | ▼ -0.2% hist -1.97–+0.67% · other way +30.07% (n=12) |
Probable recommendation
Historical precedent — what analogous events actually did
Across 40 analogous events (overlap‑weighted), as abnormal returns — market beta stripped, so it's the event's own effect, not the market backdrop. Shown at 20 days (persistent) and 5 days (immediate); ↺ fades = the two horizons disagree. Confidence = consistency × sample × significance.
| Asset | History says | Abnormal (20d · 5d) | Hit | n | Confidence | vs cascade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| NG NG | SHORT | -3.8% · 5d -3.9% | 58% | 36 | 0.15 | ⚠ differs |
| SMH SMH | LONG | +1.2% · 5d -0.6% ↺ fades | 58% | 36 | 0.14 | ⚠ differs |
| High-yield credit HYG | SHORT | -0.3% · 5d +0.0% ↺ fades | 58% | 36 | 0.13 | ✓ matches cascade |
| US dollar DXY | LONG | +0.8% · 5d +0.2% | 57% | 40 | 0.13 | · |
| MSTR MSTR | SHORT | -1.8% · 5d -2.4% | 58% | 36 | 0.12 | ✓ matches cascade |
| Gold XAU | SHORT | -0.6% · 5d -0.2% | 56% | 36 | 0.11 | · |
| 10y yield DGS10 | LONG | +0bp · 5d +1bp | 55% | 40 | 0.09 | · |
| WHEAT WHEAT | LONG | +1.4% · 5d -1.4% ↺ fades | 53% | 36 | 0.05 | ✓ matches cascade |
| XLF XLF | SHORT | -0.2% · 5d -0.7% | 53% | 36 | 0.05 | ✓ matches cascade |
| Volatility VIX | LONG | +5.4% · 5d +6.0% | 53% | 36 | 0.05 | · |
| CORN CORN | SHORT | -0.9% · 5d -0.5% | 47% | 36 | 0.00 | ⚠ differs |
| Bitcoin BTC | LONG | +0.9% · 5d -1.3% ↺ fades | 44% | 16 | 0.00 | · |