... the ex wall street algorithm writer is 100% convinced that the economy is going to crash, so much so that he moved here and bought a rural farmette to drop off the grid on...
This is the one I'm interested in. I read a lot of prepper fiction and the sunspot thing, natural EMP, doesn't interest me or seem plausible (I know, it really did happen in 1972 or something close). I'm more interested in human-caused failure cascades, from terrorism or war or ---- financial collapse, and this last is the one I really believe in.
I read the Wall Street Journal, and they have articles on how worried the big banks are about major hacks that just shut it all down. They have trouble enough with the millions they lose in regular hacks every year.