Stephen Leeb

Stephen Leeb, Ph.D. is the Chief Investment Strategist of The Complete Investor and Real World Investing.

Dr. Leeb’s books have been notable for predicting the secular bull market that started in the 1980s (Getting in on the Ground Floor, Putnam, 1986); the tech stock crash and rise of real assets, including oil and gold (Defying the Market: Profiting in the Turbulent Post-Technology Market Boom, McGraw-Hill, 1999); and the surge in oil prices (The Oil Factor: Protect Yourself and Profit from the Coming Energy Crisis, Warner Books, 2004). His national bestseller, The Coming Economic Collapse: How You Can Thrive When Oil Costs $200 a Barrel (Warner Books, 2006), co-authored with Glen Strathy, outlined the biggest challenges facing the US economy, and accurately predicted the 2008 sub prime mortgage crisis as well as the vicious subsequent economic cycle requiring massive infusions of government stimulus, near zero interest rates and much higher federal debt levels. Game Over: How You Can Prosper in a Shattered Economy (Business Plus, 2009) predicted a permanent peak in global commodity production. Dr. Leeb’s eighth and latest book, Red Alert (Hachette, 2011), outlined China’s growing prosperity and the ways in which its demands on increasingly scarce resources threaten the American way of life.

Among his many speaking engagements, he has been the keynote speaker at both a JPMorgan Chase energy conference and a Royal Bank of Canada commodities conference.

Dr. Leeb received his bachelor’s degree in Economics from the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business. He then earned his master’s degree in Mathematics and Ph.D. in Psychology from the University of Illinois in just three years, an academic record that stands to date. He is frequently quoted in the financial media, including Investors Business Daily, USA Today, Business Week, The New York Times, NPR and The Wall Street Journal. In addition, Dr. Leeb is a regular guest on Fox News, Bloomberg, CNN and Neil Cavuto.

Analyst Articles

In their latest energy reports, the IEA expects oil supply to exceed demand this year, while OPEC expects demand, led by better-than-expected performance by non-OECD countries, to exceed supply. Given ever-growing geopolitical uncertainties – to name just one, the Houthis seem capable of inflicting major damage to oil carriers –… Read More

You can’t judge economic wellbeing by the headline numbers. In the U.S., these remain largely upbeat: low unemployment, solid employment growth, and signs of easing inflation. But these sanguine numbers are belied by a slew of surveys that suggest deep-seated economic pessimism. The Conference Board survey of… Read More

The most recent monthly reports show broad agreement between the IEA and OPEC, with both forecasting gains in oil demand likely to exceed gains in supply. The current weakness in oil, we think, reflects growing economic pessimism stemming from geopolitical conflicts (see Marketpulse, p.1). Noteworthy… Read More

After reaching highs above $90, oil in mid-April backed off to the low $80s. Prices continue to be driven by geopolitical factors. Iran’s retaliatory attack on Israel was designed to display Iranian power without triggering an Israeli response. As I write this, Israel is mulling its options: While its conservative… Read More

History will likely record that two wars, Vietnam and Ukraine, bracketed the decline of the U.S. from a global hegemon to a country that squandered its unquestioned dominance – and, we hope, that then strove to come back. More than two years ago, when the war in… Read More