In this first chapter we meet Coraline (Cory) Redmann, a famous journalist who is host of a weekly news magazine broadcast worldwide by the government-controlled "Global Broadcasting Network".  The Year is 2086 and Cory is about to take the stage for yet another installment.  

Ten years earlier, Cory made a name for herself with her controversial expose'  entitled "The Great Collapse of 2028", wherein she detailed the events leading up to the implosion of the American credit-based economy and the subsequent downfall of the West.  It gained her instant notoriety, paving the way for an outstanding career.  Only twenty-three at the time and fresh out of journalism school, she'd managed to put together a shocking five-part documentary on how an entire financial system (not to mention way of life) vaporized  overnight, leading to chaos in the world's major cities, dissolution of the world's banking system, and the death of millions worldwide.  Flashing back to Part One of her 2076 expose', we learn how it all came to pass forty-eight years earlier.  

In the second part of Cory Redmann’s expose', written back in 2076, she delves into the aftermath of the financial debacle which saw the implosion of America’s economy and the destruction of its proud society.  America’s lingering greatness revealed itself in many ways.  Citizens supported one another throughout the upheaval.  But the sanitized version detailed in government-approved history books doesn't tell the full story.

In reality, thousands tried to flee the big cities and make it to foreign destinations or vacation homes aiming to ride out the crisis.  Many that Cory interviewed remembered freeways choked with vehicles.  Those who owned homes in the suburbs tried desperately to catch trains and subways full of terrified people; or clamored for tickets onboard jet airliners.  Thousands upon thousands tried, but few succeeded.  Those left behind often found themselves trapped. 

In “Part 2”, Cory focuses much of her attention on the days of recovery (also retribution) that followed the first six months of the debacle.  The U.S. military eventually moved into major cities to quell rebellions that continued to spring up, eliminating the last of the deadly “war bands” - urban militias formed in response to the crisis.  As for Europe, the effects of the crash were much the same as in North America.  Looting, clashes with riot police, starving refugees fleeing the cities for the countryside … Europeans certainly saw and experienced their fair share of turmoil.  Yet through it all, one person – one right honorable gentleman - managed to surface amidst the ongoing tumult and rise to prominence.  His name was Karl Habsburg. 

In Part Three of Cory's groundbreaking documentary, she addresses Karl von Habsburg's meteoric rise to power; as well as the principles touted by his Pan European Movement, which rises to prominence and is voted into office by an exhausted Europe.    

Habsburg and the Pan Europeans institute systemic change, we learn, eliminating wasteful social programs and performing much-needed belt-tightening.  A new government is formed called the Global Union, and what Cory discovers in her many interviews is that survivors of the Great Collapse ardently supported Habsburg's efforts.  Felt it was "about time", or so they claim, now that 48 years have passed.  We go on to learn how globalization of commerce is pursued in earnest, along with a worldwide conversion to alternative sources of energy such as wind and solar.  This has the dual effect of putting millions of North Americans back to work...and causing the collapse of Islamic Theocracies controlling Middle Eastern oil reserves.

The timing couldn't have been better, we learn, for as far back as 2015, scientists had been predicting that the world’s supply of fossil fuels would become depleted within decades.  The Earth - and more importantly humans as a species - would have to reckon with this irrefutable fact.  Things had to change.  The Global Union reacts swiftly - and in so doing sets off an economic expansion that brings about the dawning of a new, spectacular era.