Huge solar flare wipes out all of the "Money"....
Discussion
So, as I understand it,(albeit very simplistically) a vast proportion of the "Money" in existence is actually electronic and promises.
I understand untold back-ups must be kept (forget this bit), but just say for instance "Hackers" erased all of the electronic cash, or just stuxnetted the world stock exchanges (or as title a huge EMP solar flare type thing).
It seems the financial markets never actually see any cash at all, and many of their trades are done in colossal volumes over nano-seconds - would we miss this?
Currency itself now just seems to be printed without regard to gold reserves as it once was.
What would happen? (obviously I am no economist, so keep it simple please)
I understand untold back-ups must be kept (forget this bit), but just say for instance "Hackers" erased all of the electronic cash, or just stuxnetted the world stock exchanges (or as title a huge EMP solar flare type thing).
It seems the financial markets never actually see any cash at all, and many of their trades are done in colossal volumes over nano-seconds - would we miss this?
Currency itself now just seems to be printed without regard to gold reserves as it once was.
What would happen? (obviously I am no economist, so keep it simple please)
Slyjoe said:
So, as I understand it,(albeit very simplistically) a vast proportion of the "Money" in existence is actually electronic and promises.
I understand untold back-ups must be kept (forget this bit), but just say for instance "Hackers" erased all of the electronic cash, or just stuxnetted the world stock exchanges (or as title a huge EMP solar flare type thing).
It seems the financial markets never actually see any cash at all, and many of their trades are done in colossal volumes over nano-seconds - would we miss this?
Currency itself now just seems to be printed without regard to gold reserves as it once was.
What would happen? (obviously I am no economist, so keep it simple please)
Sly, I've got a Frau Merkel on the phone, she's interested in your solar flare approach to debt reduction.I understand untold back-ups must be kept (forget this bit), but just say for instance "Hackers" erased all of the electronic cash, or just stuxnetted the world stock exchanges (or as title a huge EMP solar flare type thing).
It seems the financial markets never actually see any cash at all, and many of their trades are done in colossal volumes over nano-seconds - would we miss this?
Currency itself now just seems to be printed without regard to gold reserves as it once was.
What would happen? (obviously I am no economist, so keep it simple please)
Will you take the call?
Slyjoe said:
What would happen? (obviously I am no economist, so keep it simple please)
In the places where grinding agrarian poverty is the norm, life would continue as usual.Everywhere else: the worst parts of the Bible. Famine, pestilence, civil war, fratricide, matricide, patricide, plagues of locusts leading to...er...pesticide, seven trumpets, four horsemen, the whole shagging thing. All within 24 hours of the banking system ceasing to operate.
Webber3 said:
Cool if you're in the red, not so cool if you're in the black.
But wouldn't it do this on an international scale?I guess my point is the whole system is based on made up money, managed up and down by opinions (credit ratings), traded within nano-seconds which can bankrupt a country overnight.
Does anyone else remember about a year ago when the Wall Street stock exchange took a massive plummet for about a minute. I can only guess with all of the automatic trading that some made enough to retire in seconds, whilst others fortunes where wiped out.
What if this were to happen........and not come back up again?
Lets simplify it slighty and say the Dow Jones and FTSE just wouldn't turn on again in the morning, and the same for the other markets as they went to work.
k your ECU. That really would be the end of the world(for non-classic owners). 
ben_h100 said:
I think they have transaction backups/logs or something like that, so when the transfer takes place (bank-bank) there is a log somewhere in case of power loss during that microsecond. But if this data was wiped...
I have worked in backup/disaster recovery for my entire IT career.There are very very very few companies using non-electronic means to protect their backups (optical disks and DVDs being the only format I can think of!).
A large EMP would wipe out the entire World's technologies, and their backups.
Edited to add - I do know of some data centres that might survive (ie 'the bunker' at Greenham Common) - but who would they trade with and would the networks still reach there?
CzechItOut said:
I would imagine that if the whole financial system came crashing down, the people with the knowledge and resources, such as China Bank of America and Goldman Sachs, would have a new system, in which they have even greater control, up and running within a few hours.
What would it be running on? Even if their datacentres survived the unprecedented event, every telephone exchange built since 1980 would be out as would the power grids and stations. The only functional long distance comms would be the occasional amateur radio nut with a valve driven ham set and carrier pigeons. Most of the telecoms infrastructure is operated with solid state electronics, little of which is hardened against EMP. While the older powerstations may be able to recover quickly using manual backup controls, the surges occurring at the moment of impact would fry large bits of the grid, particularly substations. They aren't lying when they say you're only 3 meals away from anarchy.Slyjoe said:
Webber3 said:
Cool if you're in the red, not so cool if you're in the black.
But wouldn't it do this on an international scale?I guess my point is the whole system is based on made up money, managed up and down by opinions (credit ratings), traded within nano-seconds which can bankrupt a country overnight.
Does anyone else remember about a year ago when the Wall Street stock exchange took a massive plummet for about a minute. I can only guess with all of the automatic trading that some made enough to retire in seconds, whilst others fortunes where wiped out.
as for the rest of it - not sure about intra-day (instant backups to data centres I believe, probably with faraday cages), but end of day backups are made on tape and stored offline in either lead-lined vaults or underground, often in former nuclear bunkers. i.e. safe from solar flares.
Edited by munky on Wednesday 7th December 10:30
eharding said:
In the places where grinding agrarian poverty is the norm, life would continue as usual.
Everywhere else: the worst parts of the Bible. Famine, pestilence, civil war, fratricide, matricide, patricide, plagues of locusts leading to...er...pesticide, seven trumpets, four horsemen, the whole shagging thing.
One man's locust is another man's sky prawn.Everywhere else: the worst parts of the Bible. Famine, pestilence, civil war, fratricide, matricide, patricide, plagues of locusts leading to...er...pesticide, seven trumpets, four horsemen, the whole shagging thing.
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