Felix Nikolas Prehn's Podcast

Gold Bull Market Phases: Why the Fed Will Be Forced to Print

• Felix Nikolas Prehn

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0:00 | 27:40

Gold has entered a structural bull market that began when the United States froze Russian reserves in February 2022, prompting central banks worldwide to replace dollar assets with gold at roughly double their usual pace. Felix Nikolas Prehn outlines a three phase framework for understanding the rally. Phase one, now under way, involves methodical institutional buying as sovereign wealth funds and central banks quietly accumulate gold. Phase two begins when the Federal Reserve is forced to resume large scale money printing to refinance roughly 10 trillion dollars in maturing bonds, a step he argues is inevitable regardless of the next chair's stated intentions. Phase three describes a potential government bond death spiral in which rising interest costs compel ever greater debt issuance. He also examines the historical link between oil shocks and gold surges, notes that gold mining ETFs are seeing share redemptions even as underlying profits hit records, and discusses how miner margins are leveraged to the gold price.

In this episode:
00:00 Why gold is behaving as it did in the 1970s
03:30 February 2022 sanctions and the start of central bank gold buying
06:53 Phase one explained: calm institutional repositioning
10:01 Phase two: the Fed's impossible maths on debt refinancing
16:43 Private equity and private credit as likely crisis triggers
17:27 Phase three: the government bond death spiral scenario
19:52 Oil shocks as a historical accelerant for gold prices
22:18 Gold miners: leveraged margins and declining ETF share counts

Sources mentioned:
JP Morgan, https://www.jpmorgan.com
Goldman Sachs, https://www.goldmansachs.com
Deutsche Bank, https://www.db.com
Federal Reserve, https://www.federalreserve.gov
Kevin Warsh (nominated Fed chair)
GDX (VanEck Gold Miners ETF)
GDXJ (VanEck Junior Gold Miners ETF)

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

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