Note: The third of a number of financial-political-business-thriller novels by an American banker who had once been imprisoned in Switzerland following the scandalous collapse of his bank. It was one of several bestsellers he had during a very successful writing career. Published in 1976, it delineates in great detail just how, and why, the (fictional) "Crash of '79" came about. As to whether it is speculative fiction, on the first page of the book the narrator writes: "I liked the old days when we still had airplanes and television and dry martinis and pornography."