USA brain drain. Seriously, most of my friends in academia are trying to GTFO because they know they’re lucky to have the credentials and money to do it.

2008 was known for the Great Bush recession.

2025 will be known for the Great MuskRat Depression that Trumped all other depressions.

This time though the U.S. will feel the brunt

Conservatives who are getting their face eaten will not learn a single thing from anything

Donald Trump will either still be President, or be dead.

Trump will die and a new religious movement declaring him to be divine will gain a significant foothold among people who call themselves Christians in the US.

I’ll go by (very broad) regions:

The United States experiences a brain drain and Trump’s death (all but inevitable in 10 years, whether by natural causes or other means), will cause a major rift in the Republican Party. Democrats will somehow fail to capitalize on it and then blame online leftists, famously the kingmakers of American politics.

Canada will become a de facto part of Europe. Bike lanes will be added.

Europe will experience an economic boom as it’s basically forced to develop new industries, becomes the default destination for scientific research, and the Euro begins to replace the dollar as the currency of choice for international trade contracts. France, especially, will benefit as it isn’t reliant on the U.S. for military support, space launch capabilities, etc. and will become the default NATO weapons supplier.

Russia will have a deep post-war depression even if it takes Kyiv due to brain drain and sending so many young men into a meat grinder.

China will have a medium-sized economic crisis but ultimately (after Xi) enact long needed reforms (kind of like when Mao died and Deng Xiaoping enacted reforms).

India will have a major crisis as Hindu Nationalism goes too far and people begin to revolt.

Central Asia will keep on keeping on. (I don’t know a lot about Central Asia.)

Latin America will increase trade with China and Europe at the expense of the United States. Bolsonaro will go to the hospital 50 more times and be bit by an even more exotic bird. Argentina will benefit most from the decline of the U.S. as a reliable trading partner.

Israel will annex the West Bank and Arab countries will isolate it. Saudi Arabia’s line city will still be in the planning stages. Iran will develop a nuclear deterrent but the power of the Supreme Leader will be weakened and shift to the elected officials because of economic problems.

The Maghreb will benefit from Europe’s rise and increased trade. West Africa will experience an economic and population boom and become an inexpensive manufacturing hub. The Horn of Africa will probably remain a shitshow (but hopefully I’m wrong about that). Central and Southern Africa will also experience significant growth but at a slower pace than West Africa.

Australia will lose another war with emus as New Zealand wisely allies with the Emus. They will force Australia into a humiliating peace deal that ultimately leads to a third Emu War, much like WWI’s onerous peace terms led to WWII.

Ocean acidification and rising sea levels will begin to fuck everyone and scientists will scream about it but it’ll be the following decades when that sort of thing really wrecks the world economy.

Nintendo will somehow sell me the same games for the 5th time.

Famine will enter the American lexicon again.

Traumatized Ukrainian “terrorists”.

You’ve fought s brutal war only to be sold out by your allies. Do you really just go home?

Most will. But a few will take the fight into Russian territory and use insurgent tactics.

The media will call them terrorists.

Famine around the world. Global political instability + climate change + economic downturn = food scarcity.

A high profile political assassination in the US or Europe.

Trump tries to sell a state to Russia.

we follow the trajectory of Nazi Germany

only THIS time, America will NOT be sweeping in to save the day. there IS no one to save the day this time.

so imprisonment and death for millions…and a world war. if we are very lucky , there might be an after…but then again…maybe not.

• dollar devalues by 90% compared to present value
• wages so low / cost of living so high that people can’t pay for bread with their wages, making subsidies / universal basic income a necessity.
• US goes on the brink of a civil war before the rich agree to pay for said subsidies, probably some people die because of it.
• US slides into a mixture of tech-authoritarianism/fascism
• martian settlement/research makes surprisingly fast progress, with wide bi-partisan support because people realize it’s actually a good idea for everyone, creating demand for human labor and driving up the wages.

Major roadblocks to piracy and porn in the US. Piracy will never be eliminated, but the barrier to entry will become too difficult for most folks. I’ve subsequently been hoarding all of the media I can get my hands on in case this happens - I refuse to pay for 20 streaming services just to watch movies and TV.

Drone attacks and drone based spying will be huge and hobby drones will be highly restricted.

As a casual drone enthusiast I’m already filling in all of my flying now because the free flying days seem to be numbered.

I’ll adopt a cat. 🤞

EDIT: I read the question wrong, but I’m keeping it up.