- Galt, John [pseud.].
The Day the Dollar Died.
Florida: Self-published, 2011.
-
I have often remarked in this venue how fragile the infrastructure of
the developed world is, and how what might seem to be a small disruption
could cascade into a
black swan
event which could potentially result in the
end of the world as we know it. It is not
only physical events such as EMP attacks,
cyber attacks on critical infrastructure, or natural
disasters such as hurricanes and earthquakes which can
set off the downspiral, but also loss of confidence in the
financial system in which all of the myriad transactions
which make up the global division of labour on which our
contemporary society depends. In a fiat money system,
where currency has no intrinsic value and is
accepted only on the confidence that it will be subsequently
redeemable for other goods without massive depreciation,
loss of that confidence can bring the system down almost
overnight, and this has happened again and again in the sorry
millennia-long history of paper money. As economist
Herbert Stein observed, “If something cannot go on
forever, it will stop”. But, when pondering the
many “unsustainable” trends we see all around us
today, it's important to bear in mind that they can often go
on for much longer, diverging more into the world of weird than
you ever imagined before stopping, and that when they finally
do stop the débâcle can be more sudden and
breathtaking in its consequences than even excitable forecasters
conceived.
In this gripping thriller, the author envisions the sudden loss
in confidence of the purchasing power of the U.S. dollar and the
ability of the U.S. government to make good on its obligations
catalysing a meltdown of the international financial system
and triggering dire consequences within the United States as
an administration which believes
“you
never want a serious crisis to go to waste”
exploits the calamity to begin
“fundamentally
transforming the United States of America”. The story
is told in a curious way: by one first-person narrator and from
the viewpoint of other people around the country recounted
in third-person omniscient style. This is unusual, but I didn't
find it jarring, and the story works.
The recounting of the aftermath of sudden economic collapse is
compelling, and will probably make you rethink your own preparations
for such a dire (yet, I believe, increasingly probable) event. The
whole post-collapse scenario is a little
too black
helicopter for my taste: we're asked to simultaneously believe
that a government which has bungled its way into an apocalyptic
collapse of the international economic system (entirely plausible
in my view) will be ruthlessly efficient in imposing its new order
(nonsense—it will be as mindlessly incompetent as in
everything else it attempts). But the picture painted of how
citizens can be intimidated or co-opted into becoming
collaborators
rings true, and will give you pause as you think about your friends
and neighbours as potential snitches working for the Man. I
found it particularly delightful that the author envisions
a concept similar to my 1994 dystopian piece,
Unicard,
as playing a part in the story.
At present, this book is available only in PDF format. I read it with
Stanza
on my iPad, which provides a reading experience equivalent to the Kindle
and iBooks applications. The author says other electronic editions
of this book will be forthcoming in the near future; when they're released
they should be linked to the page cited above. The PDF edition is perfectly
readable, however, so if this book interests you, there's no reason to wait.
And, hey, it's free! As a self-published work, it's not surprising
there are a number of typographical errors, although very few factual errors
I noticed. That said, I've read novels published by major houses
with substantially more copy editing goofs, and the errors here never
confuse the reader nor get in the way of the narrative.
For the author's other writings and audio podcasts, visit his
Web site.
August 2011 