Ponzi War, a fast-paced political thriller is set at the center of American power, where a quiet discovery threatens the nation’s most trusted promise.
The story opens in 1989, following two freshman U.S. congressmen who secretly launch a 35-year Social Security privatization experiment. Landon Fowler, a former stockbroker, hopes to expose the retirement system for what it is. John Knox believes just as fiercely Americans must be protected from losing faith in government’s guarantee of retirement security.
Fast-forward to spring 2026 when a guarded test becomes something far more dangerous: proof. Staggering, incontrovertible evidence affirms that the retirement system Americans depend upon quietly drains their wealth—while keeping them dependent on government.
With the stealthy creation of 1,776 multimillionaires, what should be a celebration instead sparks fear. Revealing the truth of America’s giant Ponzi scheme—Social Security—would shatter a national myth and upend American politics. A high stakes battle to suppress the findings begins.
The two former congressmen, having ascended to the highest levels of government power, combat as presidential contenders from opposite parties. One fights to suppress the results while the other fights to reveal them. But battle lines are blurred when two additional presidential contenders escalate the conflict.
As the clock ticks toward an automatic Fourth of July revelation timed to America’s 250th birthday, Ponzi War rockets, careens, and explodes with kidnappings, blackmail, wire fraud, political intrigue, FBI investigations, love, and death.
A Ponzi scheme is a form of fraud that lures investors and pays profits to earlier investors with funds collected from later ones. Named after Italian con artist Charles Ponzi, this financial scam misleads investors by pretending profits are derived from legitimate—though in fact non-existent—business activities. A Ponzi scheme can maintain the illusion of profitability only if new depositors sign on, and only if none of the investors demand full repayment or lose faith in the non-existent assets they supposedly own.
Ponzi War is the fictional story of some well-connected officials either striving to expose or to conceal the U.S. federal government’s ownership of the world’s largest Ponzi scheme—Social Security. The “investors” are American workers making monthly deposits into the so-called “Social Security Trust Fund.” While promising a modest monthly retirement income, federal officials neglect to inform workers of three vital perils of this pledge:
As an experiment, two congressmen and their associates secretly divert thirty-five years of payroll contributions from 1,776 workers into a legitimate, privately guaranteed stock market investment. In July 2026, these participants receive a surprise windfall in retirement income and personal wealth. And the Social Security insolvency threat—which has completely disappeared—no longer offers a club with which one political party can beat the other.
Ponzi War’s protagonists confront political opponents, the club wielding defenders of the Social Security Ponzi scheme who are determined to keep the truth buried. These antagonists—self-styled “servants of the people”—fight to preserve voters’ dependence on government by concealing the massive, hidden wealth theft. As the battle intensifies—and Social Security’s promise remains shadowed by insolvency concerns—the financial future of every American worker hangs in the balance.
UNDER CONSTRUCTION – I envision 4 thumbnail graphics for 4 book titles (Ponzi War plus Warm Wars – books 1 through 3). This page will be updated with each new book release. Ultimately, I hope it will feature at least 10 published novels in as many years.
“War” series author Doug Adamson started composing plots in elementary school but didn’t produce a full-blown story until his first year of marriage. It was a novella and gift to his wife—an author and a patient, talented editor. She declared the work “rough,” though she appreciated the effort.
For twenty years Doug wrote non-fiction for business while regularly creating and reciting tall tales to entertain his two growing children. When his second scion left for college, he was freed up to dive back into fiction writing. Ponzi War was born.
Ten more years passed before he retired from a career in financial services and returned to the keyboard to rekindle the thriller-novelist fire.
Trained in energy and environmental economics, Doug sees the world through a classical economist’s lens—of the Thomas Sowell and Milton Friedman variety. He recognizes that effective solutions to America’s major problems are self-evident—based on empirical supply-demand, cost-benefit analyses. A keen observer of humanity, he realizes that strong countervailing economic incentives for fraud and corruption often make sensible and fruitful policy nearly impossible.
The “War” stories feature antagonists with turf-guarding economic incentives measured in the billions of dollars. Some also suffer ideological zeal which leads to conniving means to reach seemingly utopian ends. The protagonists are brilliant entrepreneurs who battle to overcome—through the creative forces of markets—enormously powerful crony alliances among politicians, corporations, and interest groups. The results are wars waged on one side to preserve the unjust status quo and, on the other, for citizens’ freedom to pursue life, liberty, and happiness.
FBI Special Agent Sean McMann is a highly skilled, no-nonsense, veteran Army Ranger sharpshooter and all-around investigative authority. He is the unsung hero routinely coming to the aid of the wars’ commanding generals—the true servants to the American people. He is strong, good-hearted, and not afraid to meet adversity head-on. Above all, McMann is a moral man who does all in his power to make certain truth and justice triumph over evil.
Doug appreciates your interest in the current story. He hopes your enjoyment of Ponzi War will keep you coming back for more Sean McMann adventures.
