Like other cities, all of New York suffers profoundly from the collapse of institutions in poor neighborhoods.

As the centre of Australia's "rust belt", Melbourne experienced an economic downturn between 1989 to 1992, following the collapse of several local financial institutions.

And with the collapse of national institutions that once provided a sense of belonging, like the army and the Baath Party, the tribes became important.

Financial chaos ensued, with the collapse of other institutions, and foreign banks increased interest rates for loans in United States dollars to Japanese financial institutions.

And the wholesale collapse of institutions, like China's army - the world's largest - is something mankind has never seen.

All of these aid efforts are driven by concerns of food shortages and the possible collapse of new democratic institutions in the Soviet Union this winter.

There was the stubborn civil war in Nigeria and the collapse of governing institutions left behind in a number of other African countries.

Taxpayers are justifiably angry that, once again, they are threatened by collapse of financial institutions.

European Union support has helped prevent the total collapse of Palestinian institutions and, therefore, preserved one of the interlocutors in the peace process.

THE collapse of real estate and financial institutions in the late 1980's forced many people to change careers.