WTFinance

Interview recorded - 9th of September, 2026On this episode of the WTFinance podcast I had the pleasure of welcoming back Professor Vali Nasr. Vali Nasr is a Professor at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, a senior adviser at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, and one of the most authoritative voices on Iran, having advised American policymakers and diplomats on the country for decades. He is also the author of Iran’s Grand Strategy: A political history.During our conversation we spoke about the current situation in the Middle East, the reshaping of the continent, why the US is the real loser in this conflict, whether it'll be a forever war and more. I hope you enjoy!0:00 - Introduction2:37 - Current phase of Iran war5:58 - Challenges of agreement8:51 - Sanction pressure12:34 - Lack of trust14:58 - Forever war?17:31 - Iranian shift post war23:21 - Opposition parties?28:40 - Reshaping the Middle East34:33 - Winner of the conflict?38:53 - One message to takeaway?Vali Nasr is the Majid Khadduri Professor of International Affairs and Middle East Studies at the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS), and Non-Resident Senior Advisor in the Middle East Program at CSIS. He served as the eighth Dean of Johns Hopkins SAIS between 2012 and 2019 and served as Senior Advisor to U.S. Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan, Ambassador Richard Holbrooke between 2009 and 2011.Professor Nasr is the author of Iran's Grand Strategy: A Political History, The Dispensable Nation: American Foreign Policy in Retreat; Forces of Fortune: The Rise of a New Middle Class and How it Will Change Our World; The Shia Revival: How Conflicts within Islam will Shape the Future; Democracy in Iran: History and the Quest for Liberty; Islamic Leviathan, Islam and the Making of State Power; Mawdudi and the Making of Islamic Revivalism; Vanguard of Islamic Revolution: Jama'at-i Islami of Pakistan, and co-author of How Sanctions Work: Iran and the Impact of Economic Warfare; as well as numerous articles in scholarly journals and commentary in Financial Times, Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, New York Times, Washington Post, and Wall Street Journal. He has advised senior American policymakers, world leaders, and businesses, including the President, Secretary of State, senior members of the Congress, and presidential campaigns. He has written for New York Times, Foreign Affairs, Financial Times, Wall Street Journal, and The Washington Post, among others.Vali Nasr - X - https://x.com/vali_nasrBook - https://www.amazon.co.uk/Irans-Grand-Strategy-Political-History/dp/0691268924/WTFinance -Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/67rpmjG92PNBW0doLyPvfniTunes -https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/wtfinance/id1554934665?uo=4LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/anthony-fatseas-761066103/Twitter - https://twitter.com/AnthonyFatseas

Interview recorded - 4th of September, 2026On this episode of the WTFinance podcast I had the pleasure of welcoming back Professor Steve Hanke. Steve is a renowned economist, the Professor of Applied Economics and Founder and Co-Director of the Institute for Applied Economics, Global Health, and the Study of Business Enterprise at The Johns Hopkins University who has authored many books.During our conversation we spoke about the current situation in the economy, risk of inflation, Kevin Warsh, Scott Bessent, economic risk, China deleveraging and more. I hope you enjoy!0:00 - Introduction0:59 - Overview of economy and markets8:39 - Yields out of control11:00 - Inflation 12:23 - Kevin Warsh14:49 - What should FED Change?16:11 - Interest rates23:09 - Scott Bessents buyback25:35 - Global overview28:23 - China deleveraging 30:14 - Japan30:45 - Venezuela35:23 - One message to takeaway?Steve H. Hanke is a Senior Fellow, Contributing Editor of The Independent Review, and a Member of the Board of Advisors at the Independent Institute. He is a Professor of Applied Economics and Founder and Co-Director of the Institute for Applied Economics, Global Health, and the Study of Business Enterprise at The Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. He is also a Senior Adviser at the Renmin University of China’s International Monetary Research Institute in Beijing, and a Special Counselor to the Center for Financial Stability in New York. Hanke is also a Contributing Editor at Central Banking in London and a Contributor at National Review. In addition, Hanke is a member of the Charter Council of the Society for Economic Measurement and a Distinguished Associate of the International Atlantic Economic Society. He is ranked as the world’s third-most influential economics influencer by FocusEconomics in Barcelona, Spain.Steve Hanke: Book - https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-031-63398-0X - https://x.com/steve_hankeBio - https://www.independent.org/aboutus/person_detail.asp?id=516WTFinance -Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/wtfinancee/Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/67rpmjG92PNBW0doLyPvfniTunes - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/wtfinance/id1554934665?uo=4Twitter - https://twitter.com/AnthonyFatseas

Interview recorded - 26th of August, 2026On this episode of the WTFinance podcast I had the pleasure of welcoming back Matthew Piepenburg. Matthew Piepenburg is Partner at Von Greyerz, author of Rigged to Fail, and co-author of Gold Matters — a comprehensive examination of gold as a historically confirmed wealth preservation asset. He began his career as a transactional attorney, launched a hedge fund during the NASDAQ bubble, and has worked across family offices and Morgan Stanley's hedge fund platform before dedicating his work to precious metals and monetary risk.During our conversation we spoke about the current situation in the markets and economy, Scott Bessent's strategy, destroying the financial system, the treasury buying gold and more. I hope you enjoy!0:00 - Introduction2:13 - Overview of economy and markets?10:34 - Scott Bessent’s strategy18:26 - Destroying the financial system25:11 - Treasury buying gold35:39 - Average person struggling41:43 - One message to takeaway?Matt began his finance career as a transactional attorney before launching his first hedge fund during the NASDAQ bubble of 1999-2001Thereafter, he began investing his own and other HNW family funds into alternative investment vehicles while operating as a General Counsel, CIO and later Managing Director of a single and multi-family office. Matthew worked closely as well with Morgan Stanley’s hedge fund platform in building a multi-strat/multi-manager fund to better manage risk in a market backdrop of extreme central bank intervention/support. The conviction that precious metals provides the most reliable and longer-term protection against potential systemic risk led Matt to join VON GREYERZ.The author of the Amazon No#1 Release, Rigged to Fail, Matt is fluent in French, German and English; he is a graduate of Brown (BA), Harvard (MA) and the University of Michigan (JD). Along with Egon von Greyerz, Matthew is the co-author of Gold Matters, which offers an extensive examination of gold as an historically-confirmed wealth-preservation asset.Matthew Piepenburg - LinkedIn - https://linkedin.com/in/matthewpiepenburgWebsite - https://vongreyerz.gold/WTFinance -Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/wtfinancee/Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/67rpmjG92PNBW0doLyPvfniTunes - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/wtfinance/id1554934665?uo=4Twitter - https://twitter.com/AnthonyFatseas

Interview recorded - 25th of August, 2026On this episode of the WTFinance podcast I had the pleasure of welcoming back Doomberg. During our conversation we spoke about the current economy, economic uncertainty, democratic pain, solution in the Middle East, US sanctions and more. I hope you enjoy!0:00 - Introduction1:52 - Overview of the economy and markets4:22 - Economic uncertainty8:44 - Democratic pain15:46 - US becoming an emerging market?18:56 - Solution in the Middle East?27:51 - US sanctions29:21 - Anything positive?31:40 - One message to takeaway?Doomberg is an independent, widely distributed publication that delivers concise, entertaining, provocative articles centered on energy, finance, and geopolitics. They are a small team of entrepreneurs that started this business after long careers in the industrial sector. With trillions of taxpayer dollars and myriad government mandates thrown at the energy transition, there was a practical voice missing in the traditional media. They started writing in that voice, with the freedom of having no master to serve beyond the foundation of our own principles, experience, and work ethic.This publication is their passion, and the content is supported by our team’s deep experience in heavy industry, private equity, and the hard sciences. They are entirely reader-supported and have grown to be the most widely read finance newsletter on the Substack platform.Doomberg - Substack - https://doomberg.substack.com/Twitter - https://twitter.com/DoombergTEmail - doomberg@doomberg.comWTFinance Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/wtfinancee/Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/67rpmjG92PNBW0doLyPvfniTunes - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/wtfinance/id1554934665?uo=4Twitter - https://twitter.com/AnthonyFatseas

Interview recorded - 26th of August, 2026On this episode of the WTFinance I had the pleasure of welcoming back Edward Dowd. Edward Dowd is a former BlackRock portfolio manager and founder of Phinance Technologies. He has been early on several of the most important macro calls of recent years and his January 2026 recession warning was published before a single shot was fired in Iran.During our conversation we spoke about his thoughts on the economy, AI struggles, hyperscaler capex, China risks, potential of Plaza Accord 2.0, government debt crisis and more. I hope you enjoy!0:00 - Introduction0:57 - Overview of the economy?1:54 - AI struggles7:50 - A house of cards9:05 - How bad would crash be?10:45 - Hyperscaler capex13:05 - US Real Estate17:30 - China risks21:39 - Demographic issues23:45 - Plaza Accord 2.024:35 - Government debt crisis28:50 - Bonds30:05 - One message to takeaway?Edward Dowd is currently a founding partner with Phinance Technologies. He has worked on Wall Street the majority of his career, most notably at Blackrock as a portfolio manager where he managed a $14 billion Growth equity portfolio for ten years. Edward's book Cause Unknown: The Epidemic of Sudden death in 2021 & 2022 propelled him as an alternative voice during the pandemic and the economic implications that continue to plague us today. Phinance's unique alternative macroeconomic analysis of the global debt crisis and what may unfold has given many a deeper understanding of the global nature of our problems today.Edward Dowd:Website - https://www.eddowd.com/Substack - https://substack.com/@eddowdbeyondthenarrativePhinance - https://phinancetechnologies.com/Home.aspX - https://x.com/DowdEdwardWTFinance -Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/wtfinancee/Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/67rpmjG92PNBW0doLyPvfniTunes - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/wtfinance/id1554934665?uo=4Twitter - https://twitter.com/AnthonyFatseas