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Peter Atwater

Contributor

Peter Atwater is President of Financial Insyghts and an adjunct professor at William & Mary and University of Delaware, where he teaches on the behavioral psychology of confidence and decision-making. After a successful career in financial services—including work helping hedge funds navigate the banking crisis—he left Wall Street to pursue research into how confidence shapes individual and institutional choices.
Atwater brings a distinctive behavioral lens to markets and culture, identifying the predictable patterns that cut across financial, economic, political, and social trends. He works with global business leaders, professional investors, and policymakers, helping them translate signals of confidence and fear into strategic advantage. A regular voice on CNBC, Bloomberg Radio, and in the Financial Times, Wall Street Journal, and Time Magazine, Atwater offers his insights on current events with the clarity of someone who understands that history doesn't repeat—it rhymes, if you know what to look for.
His book, The Confidence Map, distills his framework into a practical guide for anyone making decisions in complex or uncertain situations. The book has become a resource for institutional investors, corporations, and policymakers seeking to understand and navigate confidence-driven behavior.
Twitter/X: @Peter_Atwater | LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/peter-atwater-08467034/ | Website: https://peteratwater.com/ | Newsletter: Financial Insyghts (https://financial-insyghts.com/)

 

Articles by Peter

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Uncomfortably Underwater: When K-Shaped Economics Breaks

By Peter Atwater

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November 7, 2025

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.