It wouldn't take much pressure to push it toward collapse.

"This could be the decade, because we're heading toward economic collapse," he said in an interview.

Yet as Lincoln was rushing toward collapse, the auditors nonetheless approved financial statements that now appear to have been seriously misleading.

Panama has been moving toward economic collapse since March 3, when the Government ordered all banks to close because of a cash-flow crisis.

Almost everyone believes that North Korea is on a trajectory toward collapse.

But he rejected contentions that the Government's policies had helped push eastern Germany toward economic collapse.

They had $3 billion in loans coming in, the company was teetering toward collapse, and now they might get attacked?

Those factors combined to push Enron toward collapse.

Mr. Wahid said he could think of no moment that had been a turning point in sending his administration downhill toward collapse.

Enron began to spiral toward collapse in the fall, when much of the country was focusing attention on the terrorist attacks.