We should… conclude that the abandoned big-box structures will not last more than one generation under any circumstances. […] The same thing can be s… - James Howard Kunstler

Living by the clock was an old habit that died hard. Not much that we did required punctuality, but people still wanted to know what time it was.

It was obvious there would be no return to [what we used to call] "normality." The [resource-intensive] economy wouldn't be coming back. Globalism was over. The politicians and generals were failing to pull things together at the center. We would not be returning to Boston. The computer industry, in which so many hopes had been vested, was fading into history.

Monetary inflation became a thing for the first time since Roman days — a much easier trick with printed paper banknotes than with silver coins — but the effect was the same: the evaporation of “wealth” (which is what money supposedly represents).