Do you mean The Death of Money by Jim Rickards? I have read it. I think it is absolutely reasonable to expect a major reset of the international monetary system to one that is less favorable to the United States. One reason I tend to like Rickards is that he is fairly level-headed about it. He has seen a LOT and is extremely knowledgeable about the nuts and bolts and ins and outs of the monetary system and the financial world generally. He's not afraid to go against common wisdom, but he's also calm. He advocates staying financially "nimble" while not freaking out about imminent social collapse and 1920s Weimar hyperinflationary doom. If there is a collapse, there will be a global political and monetary arrangement hammered out, a la Bretton Woods, as opposed to riots in the streets. Will the U.S. lead it? I don't know. Will we come out smelling like a rose and continuing to assert the kind of hegemony we have for the last century? Probably not. But doom? No. That seems like a reasonable approach to me, or at least a strong argument for diversification. Deflation is as likely as inflation, says Rickards, and even if hyperinflation occurs, it is just as likely to follow a period of deflation as to not. In any case, I don't think we really have any Rudolph Havensteins in control these days.
That isn't to say that there's not SOME merit to the "prepper" mentality. It's all about being flexible, nimble in a changing environment. Even if the Golden Hordes aren't roaming the country looting and causing mayhem, there are natural disasters, power outages, etc. and being set up to withstand a few weeks of interruption of the transportation system isn't a bad idea. I was really struck by an interview with a Japanese citizen about two weeks after the earthquake/tsunami, who was down to a jar of pickles and a can of fish. The stores were, of course, empty. Hey, I live in California. I remember 1994. It doesn't hurt to have a little extra food in the house. If such a thing happened here, my family would get mighty tired of spaghetti, canned beans, and rice, but we wouldn't starve.