This reminds me of Ken MacLeod's Descent [0]. It's a great hard SF book, mainly about UFOs, governments and conspiracies, but in a typical MacLeod style it cove

This reminds me of Ken MacLeod's Descent [0]. It's a great hard SF book, mainly about UFOs, governments and conspiracies, but in a typical MacLeod style it covers plenty more subjects. I can't recommend it enough, and I definitely can't do it justice in a HN comment. Anyway... there's a sub-thread in the book about how things got really bad economically for the population, about a brewing revolution, and how governments around the world have struck a deal to 'defuse a hidden time-bomb under the world economy'. This was known as the Big Deal. It was tried many times before, but failed. So no one took it very seriously this last time. Except, this time there was a military crackdown on tax havens (except Switzerland): France took over Monaco, Belgia over Luxembourg, US over Panama, Russia over Dubai etc. This time, it did work. There's a funny and sad moment when a student receives a letter from the 'student loan company', informing her that her loan was suspended, but she should apply for a grant, instead. And it took her a moment to remember what a grant even is. [0]: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/20618981-descent https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/20618981-descent