Analyst Matthew Piepenburg points out that the recent drop of the Japanese Yen to a forty-year low against the US Dollar, coupled with Federal Reserve Chair Powell's admission after the July FOMC meeting that the rise in long-term interest rates is no longer a proactive move by the Federal Reserve but rather a result of market-driven pricing, jointly reveal the weakening control of major global central banks over the bond market. He believes this foreshadows an erosion of the purchasing power of fiat currencies, represented by the US Dollar, and that gold, as an anti-fiat asset, is at a new historical starting point for its strategic value. The Bank of Japan (BOJ) raised its benchmark interest rate to 1% in June, but the unwinding of Yen carry trades is triggering selling pressure in the US stock and bond markets, with the Nasdaq index recording its worst single-month performance in decades in July. The US public debt stands at approximately $40 trillion, with over $8 trillion in debt facing refinancing pressure within the next 12 months.