OK ... yeah, digging around I've not found any direct citations, just a reference to this anecdotal second-hand report ... and it's hard to say how reliable that is.  I saw one that referred to economic "mismanagement" and another that referred to a disaster.

Didn't Irlmaier also say something about an economic collapse being the reason why the US doesn't get involved in a Russian invation of Europe? ... or the US wouldn't be that much of a factor.  Irlmaier says that the Chinese invade the US from the West, but don't get too far.

Very interesting as the only condition under which I can see both Russian emboldened to go into Europe and the Chinese into the US is if the US were in chaos due to some calamity, whether natural disaster or economic collapse ... or a massive grid failure across the US (which would also cause economic collapse).