as a show of good faith. I think things are moving in the right direction. But we still have a major problem with FAX NEWS and a few radio guys. We need to move more carefully there. They've started moving assets out of the country and we don't want them broadcasting from Bermuda or somewhere that we don't control. They may become much harder to deal with if they do. Too many people with satellite TV, radio and Internet connections."
"Black, can't we knock out their satellites?"
"Of course but then they would probably just switch to the Internet. Much more difficult to manage unless we hit the kill switch and shut down Internet access for everyone and that would just cause a lot of other problems."
"For the time being, we just need to wait and continue our public service ad campaign telling people that listening to those sites is social treason. It's working pretty well. We've convinced most of the country," says Summers.
"My people are nearly ready with the national firewall, similar to what the Chinese use. When that's done, we can filter out anything we want," interjects Admiral Black.
DeWitt says, "The media's job is report what we tell them to. They should view their role as nothing but stenographers. Criticism is not to be permitted. When we say something, it's their job to treat it as holy writ and publish it as is."
Admiral Black says, "We've taken a few actions against some of the more scurrilous bloggers out there. I think that the word will get around that cooperation, silence, and caution are the safe and sensible paths."
"Good. Keep me posted and I want weekly reports on how that database is coming."
Nods and yes ma'am all around.
"Now, what the hell is going on with the weather? You, NOAA guy, what's happening? Half the lights are out in New England, the Mississippi River is frozen solid, shipments are halted everywhere, trains aren't running because their diesel has turned to parafin. What the hell is going on?"
The representative from NOAA answers, "Well, Madame President, as you said, the Mississippi is frozen, so is the Ohio, the Missouri, most of Chesapeake Bay all the way to up Baltimore, the Delaware Bay all the way to Philadelphia, Narragansett Bay to Providence and Boston Harbor. The Great Lakes are completely frozen over. Interstates 70, 80 and 90 are barely passable from the east coast to the Rockies. This is the worst Arctic outbreak since the mid-70s and the computer models tell us it will persist in the East until April."
"APRIL!?" shrieks DeWitt.
"Yes, Madame President, April. And we don't expect Lake Superior to thaw completely until August. It will be a very cold spring."
The guy from the Department of Energy raises his hand nervously.
"Yes, who are you?" says DeWitt.
"I'm Bill Sargent from the Department of Energy, Madame President. The weather situation is causing a lot of problems for us. We can't get oil shipments up the Ohio River. Freight train service in states north of Kentucky is coming to a halt due to lack of fuel and the cold. The diesel they have is turning to jelly and can't be pumped. The Bailey Yards in North Platte are closed."
"What the hell is a Bailey Yard?"
"It's the main east-west railway junction for the nation. It's in North Platte, Nebraska. With those yards closed, all shipping is being rerouted a thousand miles to the south where we really don't have the infrastructure to handle long haul freight trains. Because of the harbor closures, we can't deliver fuel on the upper East coast. About half of New England has no heat now. Our gas pipelines don't have enough capacity. Once the pressure drops to a certain level, pilot lights go out and many people can't restart them. This is leading to frozen pipes. Electricity generation is also a big problem. Again, no fuel. And things aren't getting any better."
"We all must do our part to save the planet," mutters EPA representative.
"Well, if things don't get back to normal soon, the economy is in serious trouble, not that things aren't bad enough already," interrupts Cynthia Goff, Secretary of Treasury.
"Well, has anyone got any suggestions?" asks DeWitt looking exasperated.
"At the moment, there's not much we can do," says Bader. "As you know, the Defense Department is helping clear the highways and rail lines. We're using heavy military transports to move food as best we can. The National Guard has been called out in several states. But that's about it for now, until things begin to thaw."
"Wonderful. Just wonderful. Alright people, keep me informed," she says rising. She dismisses them with a hand wave as an usher opens the door to her private office.
Monday, March 15, 2021
Time: 10:00 AM
Another meeting in the Oval Office with a full complement of advisors, flunkies, sycophants, financiers and bureaucrats.
They stand as DeWitt waddles in and takes her place behind her desk. She gestures for them to be seated. Outside the windows, wind whipped snow flurries race across the snow covered lawn. The Cherry Blossom Festival will be late this year, if, in fact, any survived the winter.
The winter of 2021 is the coldest since 1816. Millions are out of work. Transportation is at a halt. Food shipments are at a standstill. Northern seaports are iced over. People are starving and huddled in agony. DeWitt's settled science weather Nazis dither in public and pray for heat in private.
Sifting through the files on her desk she finally pulls out one and opens it.
Looking over her reading glasses she say, "Ok, Shouter, you asked for this meeting. What the hell is going on now?"
Janet Shouter, seated near the desk, nervously begins, "Well, Madame President, we have a problem. A very serious problem. The Chinese central bank has just informed us that they will be liquidating their position in U.S. Treasuries. About twenty trillion dollars worth."
"What does that mean?"
"It means chaos in the international finance markets and a probable final collapse of the U.S. dollar on the foreign exchange markets."
"When?"
"They began overnight in Asia and they are now selling in Europe and the U.S."
"Why are they doing this?"
"Because, one, they're having economic issues of their own, two, they don't think the U.S. economy is going to pull out of this depression, and three, they're royally pissed that you proposed to print three trillion for yet another stimulus. That was the last straw. They've had it with U.S. money. As far as they're concerned, it's worthless."
"Can't you just print some money and give it to them as compensation for their troubles?"
"Seeing how that is the problem, no. They don't want any more printed money."
"So, what does this mean?"
"Basically, it's national bankruptcy. Quotes from London last hour show that our debt is being sold for pennies on the dollar."
"And the consequences?"
"The dollar becomes essentially worthless in international trade. The basic Wiemar Germany scenario when the German Mark declined to four trillion to the dollar."
"Yes, I've read about that. Zimbabwe too, right?"
"Right. Last anyone checked, it was about two and a half trillion Zimbabwe dollars to a U.S. dollar. But that won't be true much longer. We might be at par in no time."
"So, why are the Chinese doing this? Why upset the apple cart? What do they get out of it?"
"Quite a lot, actually. They've basically concluded that they're never getting their money back. So they've decided to use the bonds in their own best interest. This gives them a way to buy influence. They've been securing deals for natural resources with countries all over Asia, Africa and South America as a result."
"So, how does selling their Treasury bonds help them do that?" asks Summers.
"Since most international debts are denominated in U.S. dollars, if they make the dollar worthless, they blow up the debt of lots of other countries. The Chinese are basically giving away worthless dollars in exchange for trade deals. This will let the countries in question wipe their balance sheets clean."
"Does that directly effect us?"
"Since most of that debt is owed
to large money-center U.S., Canadian and European banks, that puts them out of business internationally. So, basically, by destroying the U.S. dollar as the world's reserve currency, they gain the gratitude and loyalty of many third world countries and, ultimately, cheap access to their natural resources and, at the same time, they crush the large European and American money center banks. Not a bad trade off from their point of view."
"So, then what does this mean in the long run?"
"The Chinese renminbi replaces the dollar as the primary reserve currency in international trade and the Chinese banks take over the international banking market. From now on, if you want to import or export, you will need to do it with renminbi. And since we can't print renminbi like we printed dollars, it means we can't import unless we somehow can get renminbi."
"We can borrow these renminbi things, right?"
"Probably not, our credit rating at the moment isn't very good, needless to say."
"So, what does this mean domestically?"
"Massive domestic inflation and I do mean massive. Thousands of percent per month. Dollars become effectively worthless."
"How worthless?"
"A currency is worthless when it can't be used to buy anything. After decades of deindustrialization, we don't make much of what we consume. We import most things. Electronics, oil, cars, heavy machinery, the works. Those things will become prohibitively expensive. For starters, think $250 a gallon for gas, and gold around $100,000 an ounce. The final value will depend on how much food, coal, lumber and other basic raw materials we can