Felix Nikolas Prehn's Podcast

Japan's 30-year government bond yield hit a record 4.18 per cent, a event Felix Nikolas Prehn argues is a dress rehearsal for what awaits the United States and other heavily indebted economies. The episode traces the so-called widow maker trade, which bet against Japanese bonds for three decades and has now finally paid off, wiping more than 200 billion dollars from Japanese equities in a single session. Prehn draws parallels between today's AI-driven speculation and the NASDAQ bubble of 2000, noting that global yields have reached levels not seen since 2007 or earlier. He examines how the dollar has lost roughly 88 per cent of its purchasing power since 1971 and warns that the paper gold market carries far more claims than physical metal in vaults. Many gold funds, he notes, hold no actual bars, leaving holders with promises rather than protection.
In this episode:
00:00 Japan's 30-year bond yield hits an all-time high of 4.18 per cent
01:00 The widow maker trade finally pays off after three decades
05:02 How the Bank of Japan suppressed rates by buying its own debt
06:02 The yen weakens as the price of sustained money printing
07:02 AI capital spending collides with rising global interest rates
08:04 Parallels between today's valuations and the NASDAQ 2000 crash
10:05 US 30-year yields touch 5.3 per cent amid a global bond sell-off
12:09 The dollar has lost 88 per cent of purchasing power since 1971
Sources mentioned:
Financial Times (global bond sell-off reporting), https://www.ft.com
Warren Buffett (referenced via associate remarks on internet bubble)
Kevin Warsh (Federal Reserve)
Felix Nikolas Prehn is an economist and former investment banker. He co-founded TradeVision.io and founded Winston Daily and The Prehn Institute. The Prehn Institute gives no financial advice, and neither does this podcast.
Newsletter: Winston Daily, https://winstondaily.com
Research: https://prehninstitute.com
Author site: https://felixprehn.com
Support the show
👉 Claim 99% Off the Financial Freedom Program. Use coupon 99PC at checkout https://felixfriends.org/stocks

A monetary reset is already under way, according to Felix Nikolas Prehn, a former investment banker who traces four concurrent developments back to a single cause. European central banks are shipping gold home from New York vaults for the first time in decades. Norway's sovereign wealth fund has proposed cutting roughly 80 billion dollars of US treasury holdings. Twenty one of the world's largest banks, including Goldman Sachs, Citi and Bank of America, have announced a joint US dollar stablecoin set to launch in 2027. Meanwhile the US president has publicly pressured the Federal Reserve to cut rates ahead of its September meeting. Prehn argues these moves all reflect eroding trust in the existing dollar system and draws a parallel with the Netherlands' gold conversion request in 1971, which preceded the end of dollar gold convertibility. He concludes that holding diversified hard assets and businesses with pricing power is a more prudent stance than remaining fully concentrated in a top heavy index.
In this episode:
00:00 The September Fed deadline and presidential pressure on rate cuts
01:02 Gold physically leaving American vaults for Europe
05:09 S&P 500 concentration in ten stocks driving 72 per cent of gains
07:41 Gold as a trust barometer for the dollar system
09:11 The 1971 Dutch gold request and the Nixon shock parallel
12:14 Norway's sovereign wealth fund trimming US treasuries
13:45 Japan's market wobble as the first crack in the system
14:47 Twenty one banks building a digital dollar stablecoin for 2027
Sources mentioned:
Federal Reserve Bank of New York, https://www.newyorkfed.org
Norges Bank Investment Management (Norway sovereign wealth fund), https://www.nbim.no
Jan Nieuwenhuijs (gold analyst)
GENIUS Act (US stablecoin legislation)
Berkshire Hathaway (Warren Buffett), https://www.berkshirehathaway.com
Felix Nikolas Prehn is an economist and former investment banker. He co-founded TradeVision.io and founded Winston Daily and The Prehn Institute. The Prehn Institute gives no financial advice, and neither does this podcast.
Newsletter: Winston Daily, https://winstondaily.com
Research: https://prehninstitute.com
Author site: https://felixprehn.com
Support the show
👉 Claim 99% Off the Financial Freedom Program. Use coupon 99PC at checkout https://felixfriends.org/stocks

The US Treasury's decision to double its debt buyback programme and run it through to early November is the focus of this episode. Felix Nikolas Prehn, a former investment banker, traces how the government is creating new money to purchase its own long-dated bonds at the same time as Japan, historically the most loyal foreign holder of American debt, sold roughly 88 billion dollars of US bonds in a single month. He sets out how real world inflation since 2020 has, in his view, exceeded 100 per cent, and notes that the dollar has lost roughly 93 per cent of its value since 1971 on official figures alone. He examines the additional pressure of an estimated one trillion dollars in corporate borrowing for AI data centres, the physical movement of gold out of US vaults at record levels, and the concentration of S&P 500 gains in just ten names. He concludes that holding assets with real pricing power matters more than ever when the money supply is expanding this fast.

In this episode:
00:00 Treasury doubles its debt buyback programme through to November
01:00 Physical gold leaving US vaults at record export levels
01:33 Japan sells 88 billion dollars of American debt in one month
04:05 Real inflation since 2020 estimated at well over 100 per cent
05:36 How the buyback mechanism works and who pays for it
06:36 Fed rate expectations diverge from government loosening
13:46 AI buildout adds roughly one trillion dollars in new corporate debt
17:19 Pattern matches the 1971 closing of the gold window

Sources mentioned:
US Treasury refunding statement, https://home.treasury.gov
Japanese investor holdings of US debt (Ministry of Finance Japan), https://www.mof.go.jp/english/
US Bureau of Labour Statistics (dollar purchasing power), https://www.bls.gov

Felix Nikolas Prehn is an economist and former investment banker. He co-founded TradeVision.io and founded Winston Daily and The Prehn Institute. The Prehn Institute gives no financial advice, and neither does this podcast.

Newsletter: Winston Daily, https://winstondaily.com
Research: https://prehninstitute.com
Author site: https://felixprehn.com
Support the show
👉 Claim 99% Off the Financial Freedom Program. Use coupon 99PC at checkout https://felixfriends.org/stocks

A missile strike in Saudi Arabia kicks off a chain reaction that can end in higher inflation and a weaker dollar, even if you never follow foreign policy. We connect the 1974 petrodollar deal, the Saudi riyal peg, central bank gold buying, and what to check in your own holdings before the market reprices risk. 
• the missile strike as a currency and portfolio story 
• why oil spikes hit gas, groceries, heating, then investments 
• the 1974 oil for dollars arrangement and why it supports the US dollar 
• how the Saudi riyal peg forces Saudi rates to shadow the Fed 
• what it means when Saudi trims US Treasuries 
• the physical risk in shipping routes and refinery targets 
• the financial side door of non dollar settlement systems like mBridge 
• why central bank gold buying matters even when gold prices fall 
• a simple at home checklist to map holdings and stress test for inflation 

Support the show
👉 Claim 99% Off the Financial Freedom Program. Use coupon 99PC at checkout https://felixfriends.org/stocks

We break down why America’s jump in borrowing costs signals a credit reset that can ripple through mortgages, pensions, and stock valuations long before mainstream headlines change. We connect cracked corporate bond charts in AI-linked giants to broad market weakness, then map out why silver and long-term bonds could become opportunity zones if the Fed is forced to respond. 

• defining the credit reset in plain English and why yields reprice everything 
• showing how higher Treasury yields collide with $40T in government debt 
• walking through the three policy doors and why inflationary money printing is tempting 
• reading bond market stress in Oracle, SpaceX, Meta-linked financing, and Paramount 
• explaining concentration risk as AI becomes a huge share of index performance 
• unpacking the $1.6B silver outflow and how trend funds plus leverage create forced selling 
• outlining why metals can benefit when the Fed expands liquidity, with clear risks if it does not 
• making the contrarian case for long-term bonds and how duration cuts both ways 
• emphasizing process over predictions, plus position sizing and downside control 

Support the show
👉 Claim 99% Off the Financial Freedom Program. Use coupon 99PC at checkout https://felixfriends.org/stocks