{"id":217223,"date":"2025-12-30T01:10:20","date_gmt":"2025-12-30T01:10:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/217223\/"},"modified":"2025-12-30T01:10:20","modified_gmt":"2025-12-30T01:10:20","slug":"top-economist-warns-upcoming-market-blow-off-feels-unstoppable","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/217223\/","title":{"rendered":"Top economist warns upcoming market blow-off \u2018feels unstoppable\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

Economist Henrik Zeberg is warning that global financial<\/a> markets are approaching a dangerous late-stage blow-off top, as part of his long-standing bearish outlook<\/a> on the economy.\u00a0<\/p>\n

According to Zeberg, the surge in equities<\/a> and other risk assets is reaching unsustainable extremes even as the underlying economic foundation continues to weaken, he said<\/a> in a Substack post on December 29.\u00a0<\/p>\n

He argued that the current market euphoria traces back to post-2008 crisis policies, when central banks cut interest rates to zero and launched massive quantitative easing programs.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe markets are reaching dizzying heights on borrowed time. Stocks surge to record levels, investors celebrate paper gains, and the late-stage blow-off top in risk assets feels unstoppable. Yet this euphoria rests on an illusion \u2013 a credit-fueled mirage of prosperity,\u201d Zeberg said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Therefore, the flood of cheap credit inflated prices across stocks, bonds<\/a>, real estate<\/a>, and later cryptocurrencies<\/a>, while productivity, wages, and real economic growth lagged, creating what he describes as an illusion of prosperity.<\/p>\n

The imbalance is especially in U.S. markets. Since the 2009 low, the S&P 500<\/a> has surged more than 900%, far outpacing economic growth.\u00a0<\/p>\n

He pointed out that housing prices have moved above pre-crisis bubble highs, speculative technology<\/a> firms command lofty valuations despite weak profits, and by 2025, total U.S. stock market capitalization had climbed above 225% of GDP, surpassing the peaks seen in 1929 and 2000.<\/p>\n

\"\"\u00a0S&P 500 Blow-Off Top \u2013 the final wave of a long bull market. Source: TradingView<\/p>\n

Zeberg characterized the rally as the final stage of a credit-fueled bull market, pointing to the near-vertical rise in equities following the 2022 downturn as a classic late-cycle surge marked by frantic buying and fading momentum.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Detachment from fundamentals\u00a0<\/p>\n

The expert pointed out that the move is increasingly detached from fundamentals, with slowing economic growth occurring alongside rising stock prices, a pattern that has historically preceded sharp reversals.<\/p>\n

He also highlighted the widespread belief that central banks will continue to protect markets as a major risk.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Years of intervention by the Federal Reserve and other central banks have bred complacency, encouraged excessive leverage and speculation, and weakened risk discipline, extending the cycle while amplifying its downside.<\/p>\n

Finally, Zeberg warned that much of the apparent wealth in the system is credit-based and vulnerable to reversal.\u00a0<\/p>\n

To this end, as the business cycle reasserts itself, he expects the consequences of prolonged monetary excess to surface abruptly, exposing market fragility and setting the stage for a severe correction that could mark the end of the post-2008 monetary era.<\/p>\n

Featured image via Shutterstock<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Economist Henrik Zeberg is warning that global financial markets are approaching a dangerous late-stage blow-off top, as part…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":217224,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[72,113,176,61,1831,60,131],"class_list":["post-217223","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-business","tag-economy","tag-finance","tag-ie","tag-investing","tag-ireland","tag-stocks"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/217223","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=217223"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/217223\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/217224"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=217223"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=217223"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=217223"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}