🏛 Central Banks & Macro mixed · 6–18 months
A what‑if from the future

What if Saudi Arabia accelerates energy-subsidy cuts to plug a low-oil deficit?

To plug a low-oil deficit, Riyadh accelerates energy-subsidy and VAT increases, raising domestic inflation and social-spending tensions in a politically sensitive adjustment.

14%
our model probability
over 6–18 months
prediction markets — wisdom of the crowd
loading live odds…
Empirically anchored 14% · 90% range 1–27% · 40 analogues · measured class oil_glut 60% in 18 mo · 3% held back for the unknown
how we built this number — every step
Measured class rate — oil_glut ≈0.6142/yr → 60% in 18 mo60%
Analyst prior · editorial share 23% of the class14%
Pooled · weight 87%14%
Crowd — no liquid market
Reserve 3% · no extremizing (×1.0)14%
Published14%

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 6–18 months 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.

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What it would mean

If this plays out, it is a mixed shock. To plug a low-oil deficit, Riyadh accelerates energy-subsidy and VAT increases, raising domestic inflation and social-spending tensions in a politically sensitive adjustment. The trigger decomposes into signed root‑shocks — Credit spreads ▲ · Inflation surprise ▲ · Oil demand ▼ — 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
1High-yield credit HYG 📈 chartRate▼ -0.2%
hist -0.38–+0.52% · other way -0.47% (n=9)
230y Treasury yield DGS30 📈 chartRate▲ +2bp
hist -1.06–+4.72% · other way +16.9% (n=12)
3Gold XAUon Hyperliquid 📈 chartCommodity▼ -0.1%
hist -0.23–+0.24% · other way -1.8% (n=10)
410y Treasury yield DGS10 📈 chartRate▲ +2bp
hist +0.38–+0.79% · other way +17.6% (n=12)

Probable recommendation

If the scenario above plays out, the probable cross‑asset positioning → a scenario‑conditional read, not personalized investment advice
Long
For a common-man portfolio: Mixed for a typical portfolio — the move is more about rotation than direction. Favour the winners over the losers below rather than net exposure.
Also moves (not yet on Hyperliquid): High-yield credit -0.2% · 30y Treasury yield +2bp · 10y Treasury yield +2bp

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.

WTI crude futures settle negative as demand collapses 2020-04 Oil collapses from $147 to the $30s as the GFC craters demand 2008-12 Henry Hub natural gas hits a 25-year low amid record US production 2024-11 Waha hub natural gas prices crash to record negative on Permian glut 2024-08 Greece first EU/IMF bailout 2010-05 Northern Rock bank run 2007-09 Silver Thursday 1980-03 Gold peaks at $850 1980-01 1979 Iranian Revolution oil shock 1979-01 1976 UK sterling crisis / IMF bailout 1976-09 Gold tops $4,000 and silver spikes past $50 in historic squeeze 2025-10 Gold tops $3,000 for the first time amid tariff and rate-cut fears 2025-03 Henry Hub natural gas falls to an all-time inflation-adjusted low on record output 2024-11 Gold tops $2,500 for the first time on Fed rate-cut bets 2024-08 Niger coup d'etat 2023-07 First Republic Bank seized and sold to JPMorgan 2023-05 Regional-bank panic deepens after Signature seizure 2023-03 PJM grid emergency during Winter Storm Elliott 2022-12 August 2022 hot CPI 2022-09 Powell's hawkish 'pain' speech at Jackson Hole 2022-08 Germany agrees Uniper bailout 2022-07 Kaisa Group offshore default 2021-12 Turkish lira record low on rate cuts 2021-11 European gas crisis intraday record spike 2021-10 Texas grid failure during Winter Storm Uri 2021-02 Gold closes above $2,000/oz for the first time 2020-08 Norilsk Nickel Arctic diesel spill 2020-05 Saudi-Russia oil price war 2020-03 February 2018 hot wage print triggers rate scare 2018-02 North Korea sixth nuclear test 2017-09 North Korea 'fire and fury' nuclear scare 2017-08 China rout & circuit-breaker / yuan slide 2016-01 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 Gold futures velocity-logic flash crash 2014-01 Cyprus deposit bail-in 2013-03 Spain requests EUR100bn bank bailout 2012-06
AssetHistory saysAbnormal (20d · 5d)HitnConfidencevs cascade
10y yield DGS10SHORT0bp · 5d 0bp59%40 0.17⚠ differs
US dollar DXYLONG+0.3% · 5d +0.1%56%40 0.09·
30y yield DGS30LONG+4bp · 5d +2bp54%39 0.07✓ matches cascade
Volatility VIXSHORT-1.5% · 5d +3.5% ↺ fades54%36 0.07·
High-yield credit HYGLONG+0.6% · 5d -0.1% ↺ fades47%36 0.00⚠ differs
Gold XAULONG+0.3% · 5d -0.2% ↺ fades50%36 0.00⚠ differs
Bitcoin BTCLONG+1.0% · 5d -2.6% ↺ fades42%28 0.00·

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.