🏛 Central Banks & Macro risk-off · 1–3 years
A what‑if from the future

What if Policy-error overtightening: real rates choke a healthy expansion?

Central banks misread sticky base effects and overtighten into a healthy economy, pushing real rates too high and turning a soft patch into a recession.

10%
our model probability
over 1–3 years
prediction markets — wisdom of the crowd
loading live odds…
Empirically anchored 10% · 90% range 2–18% · 36 analogues · measured class recession 100% in 3 yr · 3% held back for the unknown
how we built this number — every step
Measured class rate — recession ≈1.9335/yr → 100% in 3 yr100%
Analyst prior · editorial share 10% of the class10%
Pooled · weight 86%10%
Crowd — no liquid market
Reserve 3% · no extremizing (×1.0)10%
Published10%

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.

loading the timeline…

What it would mean

If this plays out, it is a risk-off shock. Central banks misread sticky base effects and overtighten into a healthy economy, pushing real rates too high and turning a soft patch into a recession. The trigger decomposes into signed root‑shocks — Credit spreads ▲ · Fed policy path ▲ · Real yields ▲ · Recession signal ▲ · Risk appetite ▼ — 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.

MarketClassProjected move
1MicroStrategy MSTRon Hyperliquid 📈 chartEquity▼ -2.5%
hist -3.97–+0.17% · other way +14.34% (n=12)
2Nasdaq 100 NDXon Hyperliquid 📈 chartIndex▼ -1.7%
hist -1.37–-0.5% · other way +0.07% (n=12)
3Solana SOLon Hyperliquid 📈 chartCrypto▼ -1.7%
hist -7.39–+5.23% · other way +5.04% (n=10)
4Tech sector XLK 📈 chartEquity▼ -1.6%
hist -1.12–-0.34% · other way +0.39% (n=12)
5Bitcoin BTCon Hyperliquid 📈 chartCrypto▼ -1.4%
hist -6.84–+3.26% · other way +0.91% (n=10)
6Hyperliquid (HYPE) HYPEon HyperliquidCrypto▼ -1.3%
model prior · unmeasured
7Ether ETHon Hyperliquid 📈 chartCrypto▼ -1.2%
hist -3.3–+1.15% · other way +6.67% (n=10)
8Volatility (VIX) VIXon Hyperliquid 📈 chartVol▲ +0.9%
hist -1.16–+3.98% · other way -4.32% (n=12)
9S&P 500 SPXon Hyperliquid 📈 chartIndex▼ -0.9%
hist -1.77–+0.29% · other way +1.5% (n=12)
10High-yield credit HYG 📈 chartRate▼ -0.8%
hist -0.82–-0.11% · other way -0.31% (n=12)
11Financials XLF 📈 chartEquity▼ -0.8%
hist -1.06–-0.02% · other way +0.86% (n=12)
1230y Treasury yield DGS30 📈 chartRate▲ +8bp
hist -3.17–+6.62% · other way +1.0% (n=12)
13Gold XAUon Hyperliquid 📈 chartCommodity▼ -0.8%
hist -0.68–-0.18% · other way -1.0% (n=12)
14Coinbase COINon Hyperliquid 📈 chartEquity▼ -0.8%
hist -4.23–+6.92% · other way +12.41% (n=8)

Probable recommendation

If the scenario above plays out, the probable cross‑asset positioning → a scenario‑conditional read, not personalized investment advice
Cash / hedgeRaise cash and hold the long hedges above; this scenario is net risk-off.
For a common-man portfolio: A typical stock-heavy portfolio is at risk. Consider trimming equities, raising cash, and a small cash hedge.
Also moves (not yet on Hyperliquid): Tech sector -1.6% · High-yield credit -0.8% · Financials -0.8% · 30y Treasury yield +8bp · 10y Treasury yield +7bp · JPMorgan -0.4%

Historical precedent — what analogous events actually did

Across 36 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.

Northern Rock bank run 2007-09 Greece first EU/IMF bailout 2010-05 Egypt's third flotation and 600bp rate hike 2024-03 First Republic Bank seized and sold to JPMorgan 2023-05 Regional-bank panic deepens after Signature seizure 2023-03 10-year yield breaches 4% for first time since 2008 2022-09 August 2022 hot CPI 2022-09 Powell's hawkish 'pain' speech at Jackson Hole 2022-08 Kaisa Group offshore default 2021-12 Turkey fires central-bank governor Agbal, sparking lira plunge 2021-03 China-led global 'Black Monday' rout 2015-08 Russian ruble 'Black Tuesday' 2014-12 HYG record outflows in 2014 high-yield rout 2014-10 Mt. Gox collapse 2014-02 Mt. Gox halts withdrawals 2014-02 Cyprus deposit bail-in 2013-03 Spain requests EUR100bn bank bailout 2012-06 Bankia nationalised in Spain's banking crisis 2012-05 Portugal requests EU-IMF bailout 2011-04 Greece requests EU/IMF bailout 2010-04 Anglo Irish Bank nationalisation 2009-01 Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac conservatorship 2008-09 IndyMac Bank seized by the Office of Thrift Supervision 2008-07 American Home Mortgage bankruptcy 2007-08 Bear Stearns freezes redemptions on subprime hedge funds 2007-06 New Century Financial bankruptcy 2007-04 Shanghai Sneeze global selloff with then-record VIX spike 2007-02 HSBC subprime profit warning 2007-02 Turkey lets the lira float 2001-02 Mexico $50bn international rescue package 1995-01 The Great Bond Massacre 1994-02 Hong Kong Stock Exchange four-day closure after Black Monday 1987-10 Penn Square Bank failure 1982-07 1981-82 recession onset 1982-01 Carter and Volcker impose emergency consumer credit controls 1980-03 1976 UK sterling crisis / IMF bailout 1976-09
AssetHistory saysAbnormal (20d · 5d)HitnConfidencevs cascade
COIN COINLONG+7.4% · 5d +7.7%86%7 0.49⚠ differs
KRW KRWSHORT-1.5% · 5d +0.1% ↺ fades71%28 0.40✓ matches cascade
MRVL MRVLSHORT-1.8% · 5d -3.5%72%29 0.38✓ matches cascade
High-yield credit HYGSHORT-0.4% · 5d +0.1% ↺ fades64%25 0.23✓ matches cascade
Bitcoin BTCSHORT-6.0% · 5d -4.5%64%11 0.21✓ matches cascade
JPM JPMSHORT-0.4% · 5d -1.6%62%34 0.20✓ matches cascade
GBPUSD GBPUSDSHORT-0.4% · 5d -0.1%61%28 0.20✓ matches cascade
MSTR MSTRSHORT-2.5% · 5d -2.8%62%29 0.19✓ matches cascade
ETH ETHSHORT-2.4% · 5d -4.5%62%8 0.16✓ matches cascade
AUD AUDSHORT-0.7% · 5d -0.1%57%28 0.13✓ matches cascade
XHB XHBSHORT-0.5% · 5d -0.1%57%28 0.12✓ matches cascade
US dollar DXYLONG+0.7% · 5d +0.2%56%36 0.10✓ matches cascade
TRY TRYLONG+0.5% · 5d +0.7%57%28 0.10⚠ differs
Volatility VIXLONG+3.3% · 5d +2.4%55%31 0.09✓ matches cascade

Methodology. Probability and impact are anchored to history and scored against what actually happens — wins and losses, in public, at Reality Check. Crowd odds live from Polymarket & Kalshi. By Vikas Singh, Quantitative Strategist. Updated 2026-07-03.