Money was worthless! It had no value! It couldn't buy a home, clothes, food. Someone with enormous quantities of cash was buying houses and tearing them down - buying stores and closing them. A few people could have stopped the transaction before it was too late. They could have said that Earth was being taken over by alien beings in the shapes of bowling balls, talking dogs, dolls that walked like men. In fact, they did say it. The trouble was, no one believed them.