Stranger Than Fiction

If you were writing a story about the economic collapse of the greatest nation on Earth, how would you set it up?

Big government spending on the order of moonshot, or a war?

A couple of massive natural disasters to shake things up?

Next an economic bubble, something in the big-ticket housing market, perhaps?

Government mandates driving the cost of consumer goods higher?

Increased fuel costs caused by one or more of the above, or some other random reason?

A labor strike or two to accelerate the whole mess?

We live in interesting times, don't we?