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The IOU Machine: How Currency Is Created | Hidden Secrets of Money Ep. 4

GoldSilver
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YouTube
5 HN users recommended this explainer5 months2014–2023 score 6.5
Years with an HN recommendation, 2007–2026

Recommended, often in Bitcoin and monetary threads, as a clear introduction to how the US money system works, though it comes with a strong goldbug slant.

Episode 4 of Mike Maloney's Hidden Secrets of Money, explaining how currency is created through a chain of IOUs among the Treasury, banks and the Federal Reserve. It covers bonds, Fed checks, debt, taxes and fractional reserve lending, from a gold-and-silver advocate's viewpoint.

“This is the best explanation I've ever seen of how the Fed and US Dollar money printing actually works” (HN, 2020)

3 strong recommendations · 3 recommendations · 3 citations · Explainers · intro · partly dated

9 Hacker News comments

From the HN archive; up to 20 kept per video, favoring different commenters. Recommendations first.

@jcslzr Jan 2019 Strongly recommends
on HN thread Ten Years of Bitcoin
You don't understand that what we call "money" today its a scam: [this video] BTC will create prosperity we can not even dream of
Argues modern money is a scam.
@mrnobody_67 Mar 2020 Strongly recommends
on HN thread The Longest Record Broken: Gold/Silver Ratio Hits Highest in Over 5,000 Years
This is the best explanation I've ever seen of how the Fed and US Dollar money printing actually works: [this video] Most people also don't realize that the Fed, which buys Treasury's drawn on a bank account with $0 in it, is privately owned - and distributes dividends to its private shareholders holders (who are not disclosed).
Explains how the Fed and dollar money printing work.
@jondubois Sep 2020 Strongly recommends
on HN thread The unrealized potential of federation
Read more
> Cryptocurrency is the digitally woke techbro’s ponzi scheme The fiat monetary system is a ponzi scheme. Watch "Hidden Secrets of Money": [this video] I also recommend doing your own research after this. The evidence is clear and overwhelming. Cryptocurrency is merely a response to this scam and its continued success helped to further prove that the financial system is a scam. Even if you assumed that cryptocurrency is a scam, what kind of financial system enables a scam to thrive for 10+ years? In such a system, how can you tell the scams apart from the non-scams? Clearly the so-called 'free markets' are not capable of distinguishing the two. What's to say that most big tech corporations aren't scams? They get a lot of 'free money' from the government through massive contracts to build projects which only add more bureaucracy.
Series arguing the fiat monetary system is a scam.
@xiphias Jul 2014 Recommends
on HN thread Bitcoin: the Stripe perspective
Volatility should never be important when selecting a store of value. Gold and silver has much volatility compared to USD and hamburger price, still if you sold a cow 5000 years ago in Egypt for silver, you could buy at least 0.1 cows from the same amount of silver today. Silver doesn't lose more than 0.01% of its value/year (still the volatility is much higher than that). It's actually more important to understand why USD and CHF are so bad store of value. The best explanation is by Mike Maloney: [this video]
Explains why fiat currencies are poor stores of value.
@ZenoArrow Nov 2015 Recommends
on HN thread What happens when a culture is driven by the need for money to make more money
Read more
To understand what debt-free money is (and to address how the US money system currently works), I'd recommend this video: [this video] Please note that although there are a couple of subtle hints in the video about returning to the gold standard, the video can still be of use as a general introduction into the US money system even if you don't think that's a good idea (I don't think it's a good idea to go back to the gold standard). Hope the video can be useful for you, I know I found it useful. Feel free to ask me any questions about debt-free money (and how it could be implemented) after watching the video.
Introduction to the US money system and debt-free money.
@jondubois Sep 2020 Recommends
on HN thread 5k people have pledged to give 10%+ of their income to effective charities
Read more
I recommend reading up on monetary policy and the Federal reserve (and watch videos) and you will understand what I mean and how it fits into Annand's description of the world (it compounds the problem). It's a lot worse than you think. I recommend also doing your own research to verify all the facts. I had a hard time believing some of the facts presented but all checked out so far. Hidden Secrets of Money: [this video] An interesting recent discussion I found which discusses the current state of the economy: [link] Actually the second one is eye-opening for anyone who wants to make sense of the current situation.
Facts about monetary policy that checked out for the commenter.

Citations, criticism and jokes

@cryptica Sep 2020 Cites it
on HN thread Remembering my father
Read more
Bill Gates should use his money to lobby politicians to address deep systemic issues instead of trying to cover up the symptoms with philanthropy. One of the main problems is the continuous 'printing' of money and the way it is distributed into the economy. It doesn't make sense that all the newly printed money goes to wealthy institutions and individuals first, it doesn't trickle down. If they want to keep the money printer running, then that money needs to go to everyone equally; this means UBI (Universal Basic Income) - Otherwise we'll just end up with the insane politics that we have today; where the rich who are in close proximity to the money printers wield way too much power over politics. I used to have respect for Bill Gates (Jr), but not anymore. If he really cares about others, he should dedicate most of his energy to fixing our corrupt fiat monetary system. Also, he should lobby for government to abolish corporate personhood and the overall concept of limited-liability corporations. The entire financial system is a scam, it's a giant ponzi scheme. Once you do the research, it's impossible to operate properly in this system. There are many very talented, hard working people today who are being pushed out of the system into joblessness because they realize how pointless all the jobs have become and how rigged the system is because of the distortions caused by unlimited money printing. The situation we have is total madness. People are angry and they're right to be b
@cryptica Sep 2020 Cites it
on HN thread Fuck You Startup World (2016)
Let's not ignore the 'minor' detail that the entire space is a ponzi scheme to begin with (coming from Chamath Palihapitiya; a billionaire who was one of the first Facebook employees): [link] And let's not ignore that the entire financial system within which this ponzi scheme operates is also a giant ponzi scheme: [this video] So the startup world is literally a ponzi scheme within a ponzi scheme.
Claims the financial system is a giant ponzi scheme.
@matt_langston Mar 2023 Cites it
on HN thread The USA Inflation Rate by Truflation Is 4.21%
I wonder what people think of Mike Maloney's educational video on inflation: "Inflation: The Biggest Scam In The History Of Mankind" [this video] Is there anything incorrect in that presentation? John William's shadowstats is mentioned.
Mike Maloney educational video on inflation.

Video list and Hacker News comment labels from HackerTube (prompted by @karpathy), released under ODC-By 1.0, built on the open-index/hacker-news archive. Hacker News data is provided by Y Combinator; comments remain the work of their authors. Video titles, channel names and thumbnails belong to their creators and are shown via YouTube. HackerTube Watch is an unofficial edition. Data export of 2026-10-31.

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