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

What if Wage-price spiral entrenchment: indexation locks in 5% inflation?

Widespread wage and contract indexation entrenches a self-perpetuating 5% inflation, requiring a deep recession to break the spiral and de-rating equities.

12%
our model probability
over 1–3 years
prediction markets — wisdom of the crowd
loading live odds…
Empirically anchored 12% · 90% range 0–23% · 40 analogues · measured class labor 64% in 3 yr · 3% held back for the unknown
how we built this number — every step
Measured class rate — labor ≈0.3374/yr → 64% in 3 yr64%
Analyst prior · editorial share 16% of the class10%
Pooled · weight 87%12%
Crowd — no liquid market
Reserve 3% · no extremizing (×1.0)12%
Published12%

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. Widespread wage and contract indexation entrenches a self-perpetuating 5% inflation, requiring a deep recession to break the spiral and de-rating equities. The trigger decomposes into signed root‑shocks — Inflation expectations ▲ · Inflation surprise ▲ · Labor shortage ▲ · Real yields ▲ · 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▼ -1.4%
hist -3.56–+5.06% · other way +27.71% (n=12)
2Nasdaq 100 NDXon Hyperliquid 📈 chartIndex▼ -1.2%
hist -0.83–-0.29% · other way -0.56% (n=12)
3Tech sector XLK 📈 chartEquity▼ -1.2%
hist -0.75–-0.44% · other way -0.33% (n=12)
4Solana SOLon Hyperliquid 📈 chartCrypto▼ -0.9%
hist -5.07–+1.48% · other way -8.46% (n=12)
530y Treasury yield DGS30 📈 chartRate▲ +9bp
hist -0.12–+12.43% · other way -0.3% (n=12)
6Bitcoin BTCon Hyperliquid 📈 chartCrypto▼ -0.8%
hist -0.58–-0.12% · other way +5.06% (n=12)
710y Treasury yield DGS10 📈 chartRate▲ +8bp
hist +0.04–+10.54% · other way +3.3% (n=12)
8Gold XAUon Hyperliquid 📈 chartCommodity▼ -0.8%
hist -0.55–+0.09% · other way +0.34% (n=12)
9Hyperliquid (HYPE) HYPEon HyperliquidCrypto▼ -0.8%
model prior · unmeasured
10Ether ETHon Hyperliquid 📈 chartCrypto▼ -0.7%
hist -4.26–+1.07% · other way +0.49% (n=12)
11S&P 500 SPXon Hyperliquid 📈 chartIndex▼ -0.5%
hist -1.0–+0.13% · other way +2.38% (n=12)
12Homebuilders XHB 📈 chartEquity▼ -0.5%
hist -0.42–+-0.0% · other way +0.53% (n=12)
13Volatility (VIX) VIXon Hyperliquid 📈 chartVol▲ +0.5%
hist -1.25–+3.91% · other way -3.9% (n=12)
14Arm ARMon Hyperliquid 📈 chartEquity▼ -0.5%
hist -3.6–+0.63% · other way -8.23% (n=10)

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 -1.2% · 30y Treasury yield +9bp · 10y Treasury yield +8bp · Homebuilders -0.5% · Turkish lira -0.3% · 2y Treasury yield +3bp

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.

August 2022 hot CPI 2022-09 Powell's hawkish 'pain' speech at Jackson Hole 2022-08 Turkish lira record low on rate cuts 2021-11 February 2018 hot wage print triggers rate scare 2018-02 Silver Thursday 1980-03 Gold peaks at $850 1980-01 1979 Iranian Revolution oil shock 1979-01 Iranian Revolution oil shock 1978-12 Iranian rial slides to a new record low 2025-12 Gold tops $4,000 and silver spikes past $50 in historic squeeze 2025-10 Israel strikes Iran — Operation Rising Lion 2025-06 H5N1 bird flu record US egg prices 2025-04 China retaliates to Liberation Day: 34% tariffs + rare-earth controls 2025-04 Gold tops $3,000 for the first time amid tariff and rate-cut fears 2025-03 Tesla shares crater on DOGE political backlash and Europe sales collapse 2025-03 TSMC slumps as DeepSeek roils AI-chip demand assumptions 2025-02 Micron's weak FQ2 guidance sparks a sharp December selloff 2024-12 Nasdaq Composite first close above 20000 2024-12 Henry Hub natural gas falls to an all-time inflation-adjusted low on record output 2024-11 ASML bookings-miss crash 2024-10 Strong September 2024 jobs report reprices the Fed path 2024-10 October 2024 Iranian ballistic-missile attack on Israel 2024-10 Gold tops $2,500 for the first time on Fed rate-cut bets 2024-08 Nikkei 225 record single-day rebound 2024-08 Nikkei 225 worst single-day crash since 1987 2024-08 KOSPI biggest-ever point loss triggers circuit breaker 2024-08 VIX third-highest spike on record 2024-08 Weak July 2024 jobs report triggers Sahm-rule growth scare 2024-08 Intel's Q2 earnings trigger its worst single-day crash since 1974 2024-08 Megacap AI-capex doubt selloff 2024-07 Trump 'Taiwan should pay for defense' chip selloff 2024-07 Homebuilders rally as cool June CPI fuels rate-cut bets 2024-07 USD/JPY hits a 38-year high before a CPI-driven intervention 2024-07 India's Modi loses single-party majority 2024-06 Mexico's Sheinbaum landslide + supermajority scare 2024-06 Hot January CPI delays Fed-cut hopes 2024-02 Blowout January 2024 jobs report lifts yields 2024-02 Wagner Group mutiny against the Kremlin 2023-06 Turkish lira hits record low after Erdogan re-election 2023-05 First Republic Bank seized and sold to JPMorgan 2023-05
AssetHistory saysAbnormal (20d · 5d)HitnConfidencevs cascade
AMD AMDSHORT-2.5% · 5d -1.9%74%37 0.36✓ matches cascade
ARM ARMSHORT-2.9% · 5d -4.5%69%29 0.30✓ matches cascade
30y yield DGS30LONG+7bp · 5d +4bp60%40 0.20✓ matches cascade
ETH ETHSHORT-3.6% · 5d -4.8%62%36 0.18✓ matches cascade
MU MUSHORT-1.5% · 5d -2.3%60%36 0.16✓ matches cascade
NDX NDXSHORT-0.2% · 5d -0.9%60%36 0.14✓ matches cascade
Volatility VIXLONG+3.4% · 5d +6.5%57%36 0.13✓ matches cascade
10y yield DGS10LONG+6bp · 5d +4bp56%40 0.12✓ matches cascade
SOL SOLSHORT-4.3% · 5d -6.8%58%35 0.11✓ matches cascade
TRY TRYSHORT-3.3% · 5d +0.5% ↺ fades55%36 0.10✓ matches cascade
INR INRSHORT-0.1% · 5d +0.3% ↺ fades57%36 0.10✓ matches cascade
HOOD HOODLONG+5.5% · 5d +0.1%55%35 0.09⚠ differs
Gold XAULONG+0.4% · 5d -0.8% ↺ fades55%36 0.08⚠ differs
EURUSD EURUSDLONG+0.0% · 5d +0.1%55%36 0.08⚠ differs

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.