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

TCI was launched more than 21 years ago. Since then, in every issue, my colleagues and I have striven to provide the most insightful, honest, no-holds-barred analysis and investment advice possible. The outstanding results we’ve achieved in our Portfolios are testament to our efforts. Now we are… Read More

U.S. oil production largely accounts for oil supply keeping up with demand in recent years. After a pandemic low in March 2021 of about 10.7 million barrels a day, production has climbed steadily, with the most recent 12-month average (September 2024) standing at 13.1 million barrels. From September 2021, production… Read More

Since the century’s start, by some measures of income, growth in the Global South’s two leaders – China and Russia – has been nearly 20-fold. In the U.S., it’s growth in inequalities that stands out. A rough-and-ready measure that correlates strongly with other measures of inequality is… Read More

Green energy, as we’ve long argued, is important primarily because it’s mostly renewable and secondarily because it may benefit the environment. Even if some question CO2’s environmental impact, if environmental concerns accelerate development of sustainable energy, it’s all to the good. But just when the world seemed… Read More

The adage “markets climb a wall of worry” often makes good sense. Stocks often rise in the face of bad economic news because investors assume money will be rushed in to fix the problem. But what happens if money itself is the problem? We may soon find out, since given… Read More