Debt, the Fed, and the bullish case for Gold and Silver [Video]

In this Money Metals podcast, host Mike Maharrey spoke with Dr. Nomi Prins about the dangerous trajectory of global debt. 

Prins, who once served in senior roles at Goldman Sachs, Bear Stearns, Lehman Brothers, and Chase Manhattan, reflected on her Wall Street years analyzing credit, risk, and debt. 

She noted that while excessive borrowing was risky then, the scale today is unprecedented. 

With the U.S. national debt at $37 trillion—the highest debt-to-GDP ratio since World War II—Prins warned that such liabilities undermine national strength in trade and geopolitics.

About Nomi Prins

Nomi Prins brings rare credibility to these conversations. She holds a PhD in international strategic studies with a specialization in political economy, and her career spans some of the most powerful financial institutions in the world. 

As a former managing director at Goldman Sachs and senior managing director at Bear Stearns in London, she directed global analytic teams and worked at the center of international markets. Her earlier roles at Lehman Brothers and Chase Manhattan sharpened her expertise in credit, debt, and risk management. 

Today, Prins is widely regarded as a leading voice on the intersection of Wall Street, central banking, and geopolitics. 

Her 2022 book Permanent Distortion critiques the widening gap between financial markets and the real economy—a theme central to this interview.

Zero rates and the debt boom

Prins admitted she never imagined two decades of near-zero interest rates would inflate debt to such extremes. 

Since the early 2000s, cheap money has fueled an unprecedented borrowing binge. Now the U.S. government spends more than $1 trillion a year just servicing its debt. 

Foreign appetite for Treasuries is waning, with central banks buying gold instead. 

Prins described this “new paradigm of money that doesn’t cost anything” as a distortion that has reshaped global finance.

The Federal Reserve’s inconsistent narrative

The conversation turned to the Federal Reserve’s September 2025 decision to cut rates by 25 basis points despite insisting that inflation remains “elevated.” Prins called out the Fed’s inconsistencies. 

In September 2023, the Fed cut rates by 50 basis points at a time when unemployment was lower and job creation stronger. Inflation then was only a tenth of a percentage point higher than today. 

This inconsistency, Prins argued, shows how arbitrary Fed policy has become, eroding trust both domestically and abroad.

Stealth QE and financial engineering

Although official quantitative easing has paused, Prins explained that backdoor mechanisms are propping up Treasury markets. 

New rules could exempt Treasuries from capital requirements, enabling major banks to buy more government debt without penalty and then pledge those assets back to the Fed for cash. 

She described this as “stealth QE,” a way to absorb record Treasury issuance as foreign buyers retreat. These maneuvers, she suggested, reveal how dependent the system has become on engineered liquidity.

Precious metals in focus: Gold and Silver

Prins was unequivocal about the outlook for gold. She pointed out that gold has already outperformed the S&P 500 and bonds, with Western investors piling into gold-backed ETFs. 

Inflows are up 44 percent year-to-date, marking a shift in demand from East to West. She raised her forecast to $4,500 per ounce by early 2026, with a trajectory toward $5,500 by 2027. 

Silver, she argued, still carries monetary significance despite claims that it is only industrial. With critical roles in energy grids and technology, silver is a “monetary hedge with a long industrial shadow.” She added that central banks could one day reclassify silver as a tier-one asset, restoring its monetary status.

Commodities at the crossroads

Prins framed the bigger picture as a global shift from financialization to reliance on physical resources. Nations cannot print silver, copper, uranium, or lithium, and those commodities are becoming central to defense, energy, and trade. She pointed to recent U.S. and U.K. agreements on uranium supply as evidence of this trend. 

Trade settlements are also moving away from the dollar, with new digital platforms and commodity-backed strategies emerging. In her view, power is increasingly tied to who controls real assets rather than who can create the most debt.

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