by Lionel Shriver.
OMG! It was published in 2016, so very much pre-dates Trump and Covid. The underlying plot is that other countries have decided to create a new international currency to replace the dollar. The U.S. declines to be involved, and things go quickly from bad to worse to a whole lot worse. Jobs disappear. There are shortages of everything. People lose their homes. And this happens on a nearly universal scale.
The novel focuses on one family, the Mandibles, who'd had generational wealth, and the younger generation was pretty much waiting for the 97 year old patriarch to die. Well, when things go so horribly wrong that generational wealth completely disappears. I'm about half way through and at this point ten people are living in a small two-bedroom with basement and attic townhouse. And the patriarch lives on. Although had he died any time earlier, the inherited wealth would still have disappeared.
It's scary and fascinating. As I read, I feel desperately more poorer with each chapter, even though my own personal financial situation hasn't changed, certainly not to the point of destitution.
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