Terms of Use

The Plumbline is a free, open-source instrument that reads the structural integrity of the US economy. By using it you agree to these terms. They are deliberately short, because this is a public-interest project, not a commercial product.

WHAT THIS IS, AND IS NOT

The Plumbline is informational. It is not investment, financial, legal, tax, or professional advice of any kind, and it is not a forecast or a recommendation to buy, sell, or hold anything. It is a tool for thinking. Any decision you make is your own, and you should consult a qualified professional before acting on anything you read here.

ACCURACY AND NO WARRANTY

The site is provided "as is" and "as available," with no warranties of any kind, express or implied, including any warranty of accuracy, completeness, fitness for a particular purpose, or availability. The numbers are derived from third-party public sources (among them FRED, the US Treasury, the BLS, the Census Bureau, and the Federal Reserve) and from a published, reproducible methodology, but data can be revised, delayed, or wrong, and the instrument can contain errors. Every number is traceable to its source and reproducible from the public repository, so you are encouraged to check it rather than rely on it.

LICENSING AND REUSE

The project is open. The code is released under the MIT License; the prose, methodology, field notes, and derived datasets are released under CC BY 4.0 (reuse freely, with attribution); and the underlying government data is public domain. You are welcome to clone, reproduce, and build on it within those licenses.

DONATIONS

The Plumbline is free for everyone, and it always will be. If it is useful to you and you wish to support the work, you may make a voluntary donation through Equipoise (its payment processor is Stripe). A donation is a gift, not a purchase: it buys no goods, no services, no membership, and no special access, and nothing on the site is gated behind it. Because nothing is being sold, donations are non-refundable. If something genuinely went wrong (a duplicate or accidental charge, for example), write to us and we will make it right in good faith.

LIMITATION OF LIABILITY

To the fullest extent permitted by law, Mindtonic, Inc. and the people who make The Plumbline will not be liable for any loss or damage arising from your use of, or reliance on, the site or its readings, including any investment or financial decision. You use it at your own risk.

LINKS TO OTHER SITES

The Plumbline links to outside resources, including its data sources and the companion site, the Crisis Ratio. Those are independent and have their own terms and policies; we are not responsible for their content.

GOVERNING LAW

These terms are governed by the laws of the United States and of the state in which Mindtonic, Inc. is established, without regard to conflict-of-law principles.

CHANGES AND CONTACT

If these terms change, the updated version will be posted here with a new date, and the full history is auditable in the public repository. Questions can go to jay@mindtonic.org. The Plumbline is a project of Mindtonic, Inc.

Last updated: 13 June 2026.