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

A software giant and eye care dynamo By Stephen Leeb This issue two stocks join Growth Portfolio. Software giant Oracle made headlines this fall when Larry Ellison, its larger-than-life CEO since Oracle’s founding in 1977, announced he would step down from running the company and become chief technical officer. Ellison… Read More

Ready to Start Shopping Rising real incomes will lift consumer stocks By Stephen Leeb Some good news at last: improvement, albeit somewhat erratic, in most labor market measures. Particularly encouraging are gains reported in median family income, rising at a decent clip since mid-2011 according to Sentier Research (chart). This… Read More

Both Amex and TJX are deeply undervalued By Stephen Leeb With consumers’ finances on the upswing (see p.1), this issue we are recommending one of the world’s deepest consumer franchises, American Express. The company, which can trace its history back to 1850, has a growing global presence in payments, distribution… Read More

Surging trade is fueling transports By Stephen Leeb The U.S. economy is undergoing a significant transition—from consumer-driven to trade-driven. The shift puts the spotlight on two sectors:  transportation and infrastructure, both critical to support the burgeoning trade between the U.S. and other nations. From World War II on, consumer buying… Read More

Selling products while reining in costs By Stephen Leeb In our lead article we noted that spending on personal consumption tends to peak at around age 50. Because our focus was on the diminishing role of general consumer spending on durable and nondurable goods as the economy’s driving force, health… Read More

For Canadian Pacific, a clear path to years of growth By Stephen Leeb We’ve long been enthusiastic fans of Amazon, applauding its fearless willingness to place longer-term growth above shorter-term profits in pursuit of its mammoth ambition to become the Internet retailer of all things to all people all the… Read More

It takes more energy to get energy By Stephen Leeb This 4th of July weekend—as I can personally attest after filling my tank—gas prices on the East Coast hit the highest levels in six years, according to the EIA. In fact, for only the second time ever, average U.S. gas… Read More

A temporary drop in a long-term energy-leveraged winner By Stephen Leeb Chicago Bridge & Iron (Growth Portfolio) is a classic case of investors losing track of a lush forest because they’re focusing on a few soon-to-be eradicated weeds. This has created a big buying opportunity in a company whose long-term… Read More

A streaming company offers a stellar way to benefit By Stephen Leeb As the need for more energy production grows increasingly urgent (p.1), one path to some of the biggest long-term profits will be silver, thanks to its key role in solar energy technology. About 90 percent of photovoltaic installations… Read More