[I have to stay mostly OOC in this stage of things, as VF is building his Foxfire telepresence for the Golden Age JLI, and I reckon the Pinafore is going to be one of the diplomatic boats to the new USA] A good source for how bad it can get would be John Birmingham's Without Warning. In that novel, he posits a world where the citizens of our USA (and a significant portion of Canada and Mexico] just disappear on the eve of the Second Iraq War. It isn't pretty, folks. At the very least, this is a case of sudden global market crash more than gaping economic hole, but it's still bad.
''We don't just borrow words; on occasion, English has pursued other languages down alleyways to beat
them unconscious and rifle their pockets for new vocabulary.''
-- James Nicoll
''We don't just borrow words; on occasion, English has pursued other languages down alleyways to beat
them unconscious and rifle their pockets for new vocabulary.''
-- James Nicoll