export in exchange for renminbi. Basically, we'll become a third world economy overnight."
"What do you mean by food, coal, lumber and raw materials?"
"Those are essentially, at the moment, the only ways we have to earn foreign exchange, by selling basic raw materials. The more we sell, the more manufactured goods we can buy."
"We don't make anything? What about aircraft, computers, and heavy machinery?"
"Oh please, the only thing we make in this country is EBT cards. No, we make almost nothing. We ran off all the large, profitable manufacturing companies years ago. Confiscatory taxes, endless environmental, labor, gender and OSHA regulations, the producers figured it out and moved their factories outside the country then their headquarters moved as well."
"So, what have we been living on?"
"Mainly, we sell hamburgers to one another and print money."
"Unemployment?"
"Oh God yes, tens of millions. At least 120 million by the end of summer."
"Oh my God! Bader, looks like we'll have a lot more on welfare!"
"That's another problem," says Shouter.
"How so?" asks Bader, now getting quite sweaty.
"Well, it's the Midwest, mostly. The farmers."
"What about the farmers? I hate farmers."
"Yes, they already know that. The problem is, I don't think they're going to be happy taking worthless money for their product when they can easily sell their crops to foreign clients for real money. That pretty much goes for all federal programs. U.S. money won't be good if the counter party can sell their goods or services abroad. Anywhere producers have something they can export for real money, it will be hard for us to buy with U.S. dollars."
"We'll confiscate their damned crops!" shouts a panicky DeWitt.
"If we can't service our people, things will not go well," cautions Bader.
"What about this selling things, coal, lumber, that crap?"
"Well, we don't actually have very much of that anymore either. The EPA shut down nearly all the coal mines and the environmentalists shut down the lumber industry. Anyway, again, the government doesn't own much of it."
"We'll take it!"
"Might be hard to get people to go into a mine shaft at the point of a gun."
"What about our gold reserves?"
"The New York Fed already used all of theirs defending the dollar last month. Ft. Knox still has some, I think. But not enough to make much of a difference."
"What about oil and gasoline?"
"Again, the EPA pretty much closed most of the refineries around the country, except for a few in Oklahoma. We have very few remaining oil wells and very limited refinery capacity. We import most of our petroleum products from Brazil, Mexico, and Venezuela. But that will soon stop unless we can come up with some foreign exchange. I doubt they'll take dollars anymore."
DeWitt leans back on her large chair and stares at the ceiling for a moment then says, "Ok, thank you. I need to think this over. Bader, we need to talk."
The meeting breaks up. The crowd mummers worriedly as they quickly exit, all but Shane Bader and Hillary DeWitt.
"We got a problem," DeWitt begins.
"Yeah, I can see that."
"Find out what you can about supplies for the big cities. We need an inventory of what we control and what we don't. If we can't keep those people happy, I don't know what will happen."
"I do."
"Right, it won't be nice, especially on top of all the shortages we had this winter. We need to do something. See what you can come up with."
Tuesday, March 16, 2021
In a large conference room high atop a skyscraper in New York, Bader meets with the heads of the main broadcast and cable news networks. Also present are the principle news show anchors, the heads of the primary wire services, the editors of the largest newspapers in the country, and several of the best known commentators, web bloggers and reporters.
Bader begins, "I think you've all been briefed about the financial crisis that is about to hit. This has the potential to cause serious economic dislocations. We're particularly concerned about the flow of food, booze, and drugs to our urban clients. If they get a whiff that they won't get serviced, they may become, shall we say, unruly?"
"What do you mean about drugs? The part about food and booze, I get, but the government isn't supplying drugs, are they?" asks one of the network executives.
"Well, we do dump a lot of anti-psychotics in those communities. But, no, that's not what I'm referring to. We're talking about meth, cocaine, heroine, pot, that sort of thing."
"How is this a government matter?"
"The problem is, most of the hard stuff is imported from South America, Mexico or the far east and a worthless dollar won't buy much. That's what we're afraid of. We could see a lot of people in very serious withdrawal and very soon."
"Do you have any plans on how to handle this?" asks an editor.
"Mainly we plan to use the Army. They'll be on the streets to neutralize anything that flares up."
There is some general muttering around the room and a few side comments.
Bader continues, "But what I asked you here for today concerns coordinating the message. I know how helpful you've all been in the past but now we need an even greater commitment. Things may become very unsettled in the coming months. It's critical that the news media present the correct image of the authorities in Washington and be supportive of the way in which we're tackling the national emergency."
"What do you have in mind?" asks one of the big network CEOs.
"Each morning the White House will email each of you a copy of the main news talking points for the day. These will include what news to cover, what to say about it, possible interview candidates, discussion topics, that sort of thing. There will also be a blacklist of topics, people and ideas that we really don't want to see on TV or in print."
"I thought we were pretty much doing that already?" opines an editor.
"Up until now, it's mainly been an informal set of notes from the White House Press Office which we send to the New York Globe. The Globe uses these to set the up the day's agenda in it's print and online editions and this is, as you know, mostly followed by other papers and outlets around the country. All very informal. Now, however, we need to tighten things up a bit. We can't afford any slip ups. Things could spiral out of control very quickly. Right now, we need the media working in very close coordination with political authorities."
"So, specifically, how will this work?" asks the editor of the influential New York Globe.
"At 4 AM eastern time we will send the days topic list along with suggested spin angles to each of you. We will also provide background video footage, B-rolls, photos and a list of people available for interviews. This should be early enough to make sure that the morning shows are on message. At 10 AM there the White House Press Authority will do a squawk box conference call to discuss the points and iron out any issues. If anything major comes up, we'll do another one around 5 PM."
"What about the interviews?"
"Beginning at 7 AM we will have a rotating group of people available at our video resource studios in Virginia and New York. Access will be by Internet streaming video. For each spokesperson, we'll provide you with a script of possible questions and follow up topics. We'll also have press kits giving suggested print narratives. Again, B-roll video will be available along with recommended voice over scripts. During the day, the roster of people available for interview will change. Feel free to request anyone not on the daily roster and we'll try to oblige. At 4 PM we'll provide an updated list of talk / no talk topics and any revised narratives. These will be for the evening broadcasts. A final set, if necessary, will be sent at 10 PM for use with overnight press runs, west coast updates and late news."
"White House presidential one-on-one interviews?"
"Two or three a week. We're not sure yet."
"In studio or at the White House?"
"Your option. We'r
e flexible."
"Late night talk shows?"
"Not a problem. The basic theme should be your government cares, we feel your pain and that we're on top of the situation. A little light repartee, nothing serious or critical."
"Well, I don't really think we'll have to much difficulty with this," says the editor of the New York Globe. "We all want to do our part during this national emergency. After all, it's all for the greater good of society."
The others murmur their approval, nodding to one another.
"We thought you'd feel that way. We knew we could count on you. Also, one more thing. We'd like to see more light hearted features on the news, less serious discussion. Something to cheer people up."
"More puppy dogs and Hollywood starlets in compromising positions?"
"Exactly. Lots of feel good stories."
"Not a problem. Those are cheap features to produce. All back of the book stuff. We have a big inventory of them," says one of the network execs.
"Also, we'll be launching a national See something, Say something campaign to get people to self report any anti-social behavior in their neighborhoods. We'll have a nationwide toll-free hot line, an Internet site and special prizes for citizens that are the most helpful. There'll be a humorous mascot cartoon figure to encourage children to report anti-social behavior at home. We'll also be setting up neighborhood Homeland Security offices where people can visit and discuss their concerns in person. We would like the media to help by running PSA campaigns designed to help people identify and root out social treason when they see it."
General nods of approval.
"Well, thank you