The idea that the economy and the financial markets are closely connected, and that each offers clues for projecting the other, is no spring chicken. Nearly a century ago, for instance, William Hamilton outlined the case for a stock market index as a “soulless barometer” as a measure of the broad trend. Analysts have long since taken up the challenge and delivered any number of benchmarks that seek to quantify the link between macro and markets. And now there’s one more: The Capital Spectator Macro-Markets Risk Index (MMRI), a simple measure of fluctuations in four critical markets: equities, the Treasury yield spread, the credit spread, and oil prices.

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