What if a deep recession hits while inflation stays stuck near 5%?
Stagflation variant of the Fed scenario: deep recession coincides with inflation staying near 4–5%, leaving the Fed unable to ease and equities down ~50%.
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 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.
What it would mean
If this plays out, it is a risk-off shock. Stagflation variant of the Fed scenario: deep recession coincides with inflation staying near 4–5%, leaving the Fed unable to ease and equities down ~50%. The trigger decomposes into signed root‑shocks — Fed policy path ▲ · Inflation surprise ▲ · 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.
| Market | Class | Projected move | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | MicroStrategy MSTRon Hyperliquid 📈 chart | Equity | ▼ -2.2% hist -6.22–+1.51% · other way +5.12% (n=12) |
| 2 | Solana SOLon Hyperliquid 📈 chart | Crypto | ▼ -1.9% hist -6.41–+3.64% · other way +10.09% (n=8) |
| 3 | Nasdaq 100 NDXon Hyperliquid 📈 chart | Index | ▼ -1.7% hist -1.22–-0.41% · other way -1.39% (n=12) |
| 4 | Hyperliquid (HYPE) HYPEon Hyperliquid | Crypto | ▼ -1.5% model prior · unmeasured |
| 5 | Ether ETHon Hyperliquid 📈 chart | Crypto | ▼ -1.4% hist -5.73–+2.92% · other way +11.41% (n=8) |
| 6 | Bitcoin BTCon Hyperliquid 📈 chart | Crypto | ▼ -1.3% hist -8.53–+4.3% · other way +2.43% (n=9) |
| 7 | Tech sector XLK 📈 chart | Equity | ▼ -1.3% hist -1.28–-0.38% · other way -1.16% (n=12) |
| 8 | Volatility (VIX) VIXon Hyperliquid 📈 chart | Vol | ▲ +1.1% hist -2.64–+2.57% · other way -5.88% (n=12) |
| 9 | S&P 500 SPXon Hyperliquid 📈 chart | Index | ▼ -0.8% hist -4.12–+0.35% · other way +2.98% (n=12) |
| 10 | Coinbase COINon Hyperliquid 📈 chart | Equity | ▼ -0.8% hist -4.3–+3.11% · other way +22.44% (n=6) |
| 11 | Financials XLF 📈 chart | Equity | ▼ -0.7% hist -1.01–+0.25% · other way +1.68% (n=12) |
| 12 | High-yield credit HYG 📈 chart | Rate | ▼ -0.7% hist -0.72–-0.02% · other way -0.63% (n=9) |
| 13 | Semiconductors SMHon Hyperliquid 📈 chart | Equity | ▼ -0.6% hist -1.49–+0.32% · other way -1.19% (n=11) |
| 14 | Gold XAUon Hyperliquid 📈 chart | Commodity | ▼ -0.5% hist -2.15–+0.91% · other way -0.48% (n=11) |
Probable recommendation
Historical precedent — what analogous events actually did
Across 25 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| SPX SPX | SHORT | -3.1% · 5d -2.2% | 73% | 25 | 0.44 | ✓ matches cascade |
| TSM TSM | SHORT | -1.7% · 5d -1.4% | 73% | 14 | 0.35 | ✓ matches cascade |
| SMH SMH | SHORT | -1.1% · 5d -0.8% | 70% | 14 | 0.33 | ✓ matches cascade |
| Bitcoin BTC | SHORT | -7.9% · 5d -8.8% | 68% | 10 | 0.30 | ✓ matches cascade |
| AMD AMD | SHORT | -4.3% · 5d -2.2% | 68% | 18 | 0.29 | ✓ matches cascade |
| MSTR MSTR | SHORT | -4.8% · 5d -6.2% | 70% | 14 | 0.28 | ✓ matches cascade |
| GBPUSD GBPUSD | SHORT | -1.1% · 5d -0.6% | 67% | 14 | 0.27 | ✓ matches cascade |
| 30y yield DGS30 | LONG | +11bp · 5d +4bp | 62% | 23 | 0.24 | ✓ matches cascade |
| NVDA NVDA | SHORT | -6.6% · 5d -6.4% | 63% | 14 | 0.21 | ✓ matches cascade |
| EURUSD EURUSD | SHORT | -1.1% · 5d -0.3% | 63% | 14 | 0.21 | ✓ matches cascade |
| KRW KRW | LONG | +0.2% · 5d +0.8% | 63% | 14 | 0.19 | ⚠ differs |
| ETH ETH | SHORT | -4.8% · 5d -5.9% | 61% | 8 | 0.16 | ✓ matches cascade |
| Gold XAU | SHORT | -1.9% · 5d -2.0% | 60% | 14 | 0.16 | ✓ matches cascade |
| MU MU | LONG | +1.6% · 5d -1.5% ↺ fades | 59% | 16 | 0.15 | ⚠ differs |