Doug Hellie

Dying Dollar, Rising Star Doug Hellie

In the fall of 2028, despite frantic efforts by the Federal Reserve, interest rates are skyrocketing, treasuries are collapsing, and markets smell a rat. America's national debt, it's true size kept hidden, is now many times larger than the economy. The federal government can't even pay the interest without secretly borrowing to do so. While the Treasury and the Federal Reserve struggle to keep the whole house of cards from collapsing, President Jay Palma, hell bent on a second term, cuts secret deals with foreign interests to fill his campaign war chest. From the gold in Fort Knox to rare earth deposits in the southwest, no national treasure is safe as Election Day approaches. The warnings of a starved and shrunken U. S. military, unable to counter Iranian expansion in the Persian Gulf and Chinese inroads into the Caribbean, fall on deaf ears. A smug Beltway ruling class believes their hold on power has become unshakable, and political infighting and the plundering of national wealth dominates DC's attention to the exclusion of all else. Heartland America is about to rain on the big parade as resistance to federal power grows and civil disobedience explodes. Texas prepares to launch its own gold-backed currency, the "Lone Star", in competition to the crumbling dollar. With DC and the heartland converging onto a collision course, unforeseen events push the apocryphal confrontation into overdrive.