The Prehn Institute
Briefing

The Unthinkable and the Dollar

19 pages · 25 September 2026 · Felix Prehn

The Federal Reserve has begun raising rates into an energy shock, the combination which produced stagflation in the 1970s. With public debt near 120 per cent of GDP, the authorities cannot keep policy tight for long enough to end inflation, so the more probable course is to let prices erode the liabilities and the value of cash savings with them. The briefing sets out the mechanism and reviews which assets protected purchasing power in earlier episodes.

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The briefing is educational and is not financial, investment or tax advice.

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