Inflation
Inflation is the quietest way a government reduces what it owes. Prices rise, wages follow late, and the real value of both the national debt and household savings falls without a single vote being cast.
4 videos · 1 essay · 1 book
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The subjects Felix Nikolas Prehn works on
Each page gathers the videos, essays and, where there is one, the book that Felix Nikolas Prehn, economist and former investment banker, has produced on a single subject.
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Sovereign debt and bond markets
Government bonds set the base price of money. When their yields move, mortgages, company borrowing and the cost of rolling over the national debt move with them.
6 videos · 1 essay · 1 book
The dollar and the petrodollar
Since the 1970s the world has priced oil in dollars, and that one arrangement has let the United States borrow more cheaply than any other country. The talks below examine how it was built and where it is fraying.
8 videos · 1 essay · 1 book
Stablecoins and the digital dollar
A stablecoin is a private token pegged to the dollar and backed, in the main, by short dated United States Treasury bills. Issuers now hold more of that debt than many countries do.
1 video · 1 book
Gold and silver
Gold has no yield and no earnings. It responds instead to the credibility of the money it is measured against, which is why central banks have bought it at a record pace since 2022.
7 videos · 1 essay
The Federal Reserve and interest rates
The Federal Reserve sets the shortest interest rate in the dollar system and, through its balance sheet, influences all the rest. Every borrower in the world feels its decisions within months.
5 videos