The Federal Reserve chairman finally said it out loud: there's "something there" to the K-Shaped Economy. But now that everyone knows about it—from Wall Street to Glenn Beck's radio show—the real danger begins. Peter Atwater explores what happens when the economic divide shifts from hidden truth to common knowledge, and why a bifurcated economy where one end thrives while the other descends into despair becomes increasingly unstable. A meditation on visibility, inequality, and the tipping point where awareness becomes pressure.

When institutional stories stop matching reality, the world changes overnight. Here are three techniques to help spot narrative shifts while they're building towards a shift. If there's one muscle you need to build in 2025, it's "why am I reading this now?"—because the bankruptcies, the whispers, and the hidden disconnects are already here.

Our Perscient narrative-tracking technology confirms Kyla Scanlon's work - "young Americans shut out" narratives consistently predict "degenerate economy" stories by several months.

New Epsilon Theory contributor Mike Smith delivers a tour de force history of Fed political 'independence' over the years, and how today's Fed Putsch is both similar and different from years past.

Aswath Damodaran, the "Dean of Valuation," reveals how he manages his own portfolio in this Excess Returns episode with Matt Zeigler and Justin Carbonneau — covering his philosophy on risk, position sizing, lifecycle diversification, and the hard lessons learned from decades of personal investing.

Nick Maggiulli's Wealth Ladder breaks down the six-level framework for understanding why some people break free from their current wealth level, and why most don't. In this Excess Returns episode, Matt Zeigler dives into the real barriers between wealth stages, from grocery freedom to travel freedom, and why your financial strategy needs to evolve as your net worth grows.

Grant Williams argues we're living through a once-in-a-century inflection point reshaping markets, institutions, and trust itself. In this Excess Returns episode, Matt Zeigler explores what's driving this pivot—from frozen Russian assets to central banks' gold buying—and why "buy the dip" may no longer work.

Think of Perscient storyboards as a way to track narratives in real-time so you can see reality before the story catches up.

For example, here are five insights on the housing market from Matt Zeigler's interview with Daryl Fairweather, chief economist at Redfin, that come alive with new meaning through the narrative-tracking power of Perscient storyboards.