How do central bank accounts really work - and who are their sysadmins?

[morningtime]

When the Federal Reserve decides to up inflation from 2% to 3%, increasing the money supply by say $10bn USD, they don't actually turn on the printing presses or mint new coins. This kind of money exists only in electronic form - they don't need to go mine for gold, nor print paper money. This inflation is created "from nothing" (believe it or not).

The Fed has the power to simply add a number to a database record that resembles someones bank account.

With my colleague at eCash.io we've been scratching our heads - why don't we ever hear of a heist or hack, someone adding a few zero's to their bank accounts? Either it is kept well from the media, or it simply doesn't happen. But that's the hard part to understand. Whereas Bitcoin is cryptographically secured, and no single individual can "add some zero's" to magically change 1 BTc into 1000 BTC, central bank's electronic money systems are not cryptographically secured at all. They are literally just numbers in a database.

In principle, if you think Edward Snowden was a security risk to the USA, imagine the sysadmins working for the Fed, who have root access to alter numbers for bank accounts. Why do we hear nothing of these people? Who are they? Where do they live? Of course, if we knew where they lived, they'd be in great danger, like Satoshi Nakamoto.

* Most people can't imagine that money can be invented out of thin air, by simply altering some numbers in a cental bank's database;
* Most people don't understand that "inflation" means "to create money out of nothing" (again, changing some numbers in a database)
* When we read about "bailouts", e.g. General Motors receiving billions, this is, again, just changing numbers in a database. Nobody actually had to cough up this money, savings accounts were not involved, the money came from nothing

This is financial power in its purest form: the shareholders of the Federal Reserve, a private company, have the power to create money from nothing, simply by changing a record in a database. If the people would understand this, there would be a revolution. Many billion dollar bailouts were done through the act of changing a 0 into 12,000,000,000.

Central Banks, therefore, have an incentive to cloud this truth with smokescreens, obscure language "quantitative easing, tapering", not to mention 'no audits' for over 100 years (apparently 2014 will see one). But I can't figure out why we never hear of some Anonymous group succesfully hacking bank account records. Am I missing something here?

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[yuriygeorge]

I've been looking into this as well. My suggestions are you to search CHIPS, FedWire, SWIFT, but more importantly - CHIPS.

CHIPS processes/clears about 90% of all the USD transactions in this world, something like 2-3 trillion USD daily. This is how digital USD moves around, and I bet it's a very closed system, highly guarded.

On a separate note: I don't know if you've been following the news, but the House of Representatives (US) has just voted in favor 333-92 for the Federal Reserve Transparency Act, aka Audit The Fed. I created a Government petition:
http://wh.gov/iiFlu

Please, if we can get 100k signatures, then we may be able to get the white house to force a vote in the senate! Please share

[pitham1]

I don't see what is the difference between creating money by printing notes or from thin air (by adding zeroes to a database). All we can hope for is that they are held accountable for their acts. If due to QE there is a spike in inflation some years down the line, we all know whom to blame.

[hua_hui]

I think the sysadmins are a group of people who are assigned the types of authority by upper. Their every action in the bank is monitored by the cameras. They are normal in the daily life and no one knows what they are really doing in the bank otherwise will be in danger. They have confidential contracts with the bank and otherwise will be out of job even in jail. So OP, it is difficult to know the answer.

[ffe]

Why is the fed creating money out of thin air any different than miners creating bitcoin out of thin air?

The rules, you say? It's hard for miners to make bitcoins. Well the fed has rules too. Who's to say which rules are better for the economy; 7200 bitcoins a day, halfing every four years, or targeting 2% inflation?

[Borisz]

I think the sysadmins are a group of people who are assigned the types of authority by upper. Their every action in the bank is monitored by the cameras. They are normal in the daily life and no one knows what they are really doing in the bank otherwise will be in danger. They have confidential contracts with the bank and otherwise will be out of job even in jail. So OP, it is difficult to know the answer.

I would agree with this. Admins probably have non disclosure agreement with the banks, they are not allowed to tell what they are doing.

There was an old movie I think in which some people/ admins figured out a way to "collect" the small "rounding errors" (e.g. bank pays 15.35$ instead of the original balance of 15.3567) of money in a bank's system and transfer it to another account.

[twiifm]

This money isnt free.  They dont give it away.  Its just reserves

[Borisz]

This money isnt free.  They dont give it away.  Its just reserves

What money isn't free?

[rugrats]

When the Federal Reserve decides to up inflation from 2% to 3%, increasing the money supply by say $10bn USD, they don't actually turn on the printing presses or mint new coins. This kind of money exists only in electronic form - they don't need to go mine for gold, nor print paper money. This inflation is created "from nothing" (believe it or not).

The Fed has the power to simply add a number to a database record that resembles someones bank account.

With my colleague at eCash.io we've been scratching our heads - why don't we ever hear of a heist or hack, someone adding a few zero's to their bank accounts? Either it is kept well from the media, or it simply doesn't happen. But that's the hard part to understand. Whereas Bitcoin is cryptographically secured, and no single individual can "add some zero's" to magically change 1 BTc into 1000 BTC, central bank's electronic money systems are not cryptographically secured at all. They are literally just numbers in a database.

In principle, if you think Edward Snowden was a security risk to the USA, imagine the sysadmins working for the Fed, who have root access to alter numbers for bank accounts. Why do we hear nothing of these people? Who are they? Where do they live? Of course, if we knew where they lived, they'd be in great danger, like Satoshi Nakamoto.

* Most people can't imagine that money can be invented out of thin air, by simply altering some numbers in a cental bank's database;
* Most people don't understand that "inflation" means "to create money out of nothing" (again, changing some numbers in a database)
* When we read about "bailouts", e.g. General Motors receiving billions, this is, again, just changing numbers in a database. Nobody actually had to cough up this money, savings accounts were not involved, the money came from nothing

This is financial power in its purest form: the shareholders of the Federal Reserve, a private company, have the power to create money from nothing, simply by changing a record in a database. If the people would understand this, there would be a revolution. Many billion dollar bailouts were done through the act of changing a 0 into 12,000,000,000.

Central Banks, therefore, have an incentive to cloud this truth with smokescreens, obscure language "quantitative easing, tapering", not to mention 'no audits' for over 100 years (apparently 2014 will see one). But I can't figure out why we never hear of some Anonymous group succesfully hacking bank account records. Am I missing something here?

(i) There was a well-publicized attempt to hack the Feds last year and a British citizen was subsequently charged in court.
(ii) The National Response Team protects the Feds' ~$2.8 trillion daily transactions.
(iii) A quote by Paul Volcker, former Fed Chairman: "With the best staff in the world and all the computing power we could give them, there could never be any certainty about just the right level of the federal funds rate to keep the money supply on the right path and to regulate economic activity."

[rugrats]

On a separate note: I don't know if you've been following the news, but the House of Representatives (US) has just voted in favor 333-92 for the Federal Reserve Transparency Act, aka Audit The Fed. I created a Government petition:
http://wh.gov/iiFlu

Isn't this just more paleolibertarian drama, passed by the House to appease the baying wolves, with no realistic chance of ever passing the Senate?

The proposed Federal Reserve Transparency Act is almost identical to 31 U.S. Code § 714.

As far as I can tell, the major difference is the GAO will be tasked to conduct its own audit (on top of the current Congress-approved ones, conducted by independent third parties) and release the findings to every member of Congress. There is also a provision that allows GAO to provide full report of the Feds foreign dealings to members of Congress (currently, those data are limited to specific Senate and House committee members, as well as members of the administration).

[Robert Paulson]

When the Federal Reserve decides to up inflation from 2% to 3%, increasing the money supply by say $10bn USD, they don't actually turn on the printing presses or mint new coins. This kind of money exists only in electronic form - they don't need to go mine for gold, nor print paper money. This inflation is created "from nothing" (believe it or not).

The Fed has the power to simply add a number to a database record that resembles someones bank account.

With my colleague at eCash.io we've been scratching our heads - why don't we ever hear of a heist or hack, someone adding a few zero's to their bank accounts? Either it is kept well from the media, or it simply doesn't happen. But that's the hard part to understand. Whereas Bitcoin is cryptographically secured, and no single individual can "add some zero's" to magically change 1 BTc into 1000 BTC, central bank's electronic money systems are not cryptographically secured at all. They are literally just numbers in a database.

In principle, if you think Edward Snowden was a security risk to the USA, imagine the sysadmins working for the Fed, who have root access to alter numbers for bank accounts. Why do we hear nothing of these people? Who are they? Where do they live? Of course, if we knew where they lived, they'd be in great danger, like Satoshi Nakamoto.

* Most people can't imagine that money can be invented out of thin air, by simply altering some numbers in a cental bank's database;
* Most people don't understand that "inflation" means "to create money out of nothing" (again, changing some numbers in a database)
* When we read about "bailouts", e.g. General Motors receiving billions, this is, again, just changing numbers in a database. Nobody actually had to cough up this money, savings accounts were not involved, the money came from nothing

This is financial power in its purest form: the shareholders of the Federal Reserve, a private company, have the power to create money from nothing, simply by changing a record in a database. If the people would understand this, there would be a revolution. Many billion dollar bailouts were done through the act of changing a 0 into 12,000,000,000.

Central Banks, therefore, have an incentive to cloud this truth with smokescreens, obscure language "quantitative easing, tapering", not to mention 'no audits' for over 100 years (apparently 2014 will see one). But I can't figure out why we never hear of some Anonymous group succesfully hacking bank account records. Am I missing something here?

why would any successful hack ever become public? whoever did it obviously doesn't want anyone to ever know it happened.

[manselr]

Only 3 Countries Left Without a Rothschild Central Bank. At the end of the day it's all controlled by the same fucking people.

[a447513372]

The federal reserve does not actually "set" the inflation rate. They have a goal level that they want inflation to be and will adjust money supply accordingly. Increasing the money supply via QE or lower short term interbank interest rates have a less of an impact for each additional dollar they add to the money supply as banks tend to just keep much of the excess money as excess reserves