Here's what the world could look like on June 24 if the “Leave” camp won the previous day’s referendum on whether the U.K. should continue to be part of the European Union:
The foreign exchange markets are in turmoil, with the pound falling 7 percent to 10 percent and the euro down about 3 percent to 5 percent. Stocks also are under considerable pressure as investors try to price in greater institutional uncertainties and the coming hit to economic growth.
Prime Minister David Cameron has announced his resignation, leaving his Conservative Party in disarray as it tries to figure out how to unite behind a new leader after a divisive debate in the months leading up to the referendum. Scotland is looking to resurrect its bid for independence. The Irish are wondering what will happen to the free transfer of goods and people between the republic and the north.
The rest of Europe is stunned, and worried about a domino effect. Meanwhile, those who backed the U.K.'s exit from the European Union are trying to make sure their victory doesn't turn into defeat, especially as some members of Parliament look into procedural ways to bypass the Leave vote.
Human nature being what it is, a media frenzy is feeding a blame game over who caused the U.K.'s departure from the EU.
The first target is the British electorate. Rather than casting their ballots on the basis of rational and calm consideration of the issues, too many voters ended up being motivated by a single, and very emotional, topic: immigration.
The electorate is largely indifferent to this accusation. After all, it was the Conservative Party, and Cameron in particular, that decided before the previous general election that a referendum was a good idea. Surely, the country's political leaders knew what they were doing, and had taken into account the nation's well-being.
Cameron's response is that the promise to hold a Brexit referendum was a necessity. The government was being squeezed by the U.K. Independence Party, the anti-EU, anti-establishment movement that was eating away at the Conservatives base. The choice for the Tories was to either lose the general election or promise a referendum during the next Parliament.
UKIP, however, is jubilant about the outcome. The party's leader Nigel Farage and his associates are certain that the short-term disruptions are a small price to pay for the opportunities available to Britain now that it is liberated from the restrictions of the EU. In their view, the U.K.'s membership in the union was a mistake from day one because the European project itself was flawed.
The architects of a united Europe say their vision of "an ever-closer union" -- economic, financial, social and political -- was never in doubt. And to the extent that the U.K. viewed the EU as only a super free-trade zone, this vision would have evolved over many decades of beneficial membership.