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by lunarg on June 11th 2015, at 13:33

ZeroHedge, a controversial financial and economical blog, is particular popular on Wall Street, because of its "straight-up" mentality. Although their writers often seem to have well-founded sources when it comes to financial news, sometimes they manage to have borderline conspiracy theories.

Their latest prediction is about ten countries that will disappear in the next two decades. According to the author, each of these countries have all the indications and the potential of disappearing very soon, whether it's because of economical, political or environmental causes.

The full article: http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-06-03/10-countries-dead-within-two-decades

From least likely to most likely to disappear:

  1. The Maldives will be swallowed by the ocean, caused by global warming.
  2. USA will fall apart because states will want to become independent.
  3. UK will fall apart because of Scotland and Wales wanting to be independent.
  4. Islamic State, although technically not a state, will fall apart due to their already long and still growing list of enemies.
  5. Libya has always been considered an artificial country. It will fall apart because of different factions wanting to be independent.
  6. Iraq's borders were drawn on the board by the UK, disregarding differences in language and ethnic groups. With no dictator holding everything together, the ethnic groups will split of from Iraq.
  7. China is on the fast track to armageddon because they won't be able to solve their problems regarding the environment and pollution. Experts predict that by 2030, China will almost have no drinkable water left due to pollution.
  8. Belgium is composed of two very distinct halves: the French speaking Wallonia and the Dutch-speaking Flanders. Other than being part of the same country, they have not really anything in common.
  9. North Korea is completely isolated from the rest of the world, and lacks the required resources to maintain itself. The little resources they do have, have gone entirely to military endeavours, rather than supporting its own civilian population and industry.
  10. Spain is direly suffering from the consequences of the financial crisis. With unemployment increasing, and its public dept ratio going through the roof, they are well on their way for bankruptcy. Even more, Catalonia, the western region of the country want their own independence, and want to secede.