The financial empire built by the vampires collapsed overnight when they were wiped out. The vast troves of technology sealed away in their laboratories were brought back into circulation, then divided among the countries that had taken part in the operation. Until those technological reserves were fully absorbed, Earth's civilization would be in an age of explosive technological growth.
At the same time, however, the global financial order, in which vast amounts of vampire capital had been invested, was thrown into turmoil. The real estate holdings, subprime mortgages, and investment funds they had managed went bankrupt one after another. Stock prices plummeted, the crisis spread across the world's financial markets, and a devastating financial storm took shape.
Ever since the discovery of the alien bugs, the United States had been scaling back its overseas military bases. With no foreign wars to make a fortune from—and with Japan, its cash cow, not to be milked so hard that its roots were destroyed—signs of an economic downturn had begun to appear at home. The current prosperity was propped up entirely by wildly inflated real estate prices.
Subprime mortgage lenders serving low-income borrowers were an especially important link in the chain. Now that link had collapsed, like the first domino to fall, and the chain reaction had destroyed the prosperity of the day.
Although many people had made a fortune dividing up the vampires' legacy, they would only use the financial crisis to grab even more wealth. None of them would give up the profits within reach to save a market that was already visibly in decline.
Just as Nick Fury had feared from the start, the vampires had been easy to eliminate, but the problems that followed were incredibly difficult to deal with. Even with the threat of nuclear weapons keeping everyone