A political meltdown could occur elsewhere as well.

Where there is economic meltdown, there is always a danger of political meltdown.

The Liberal Democrats continued to experience a political meltdown following on from the previous year's Scottish elections, losing 57% of their councillors.

Many citizens feared their country would join a regional trend of political and economic meltdown or enter a civil war.

So far the White House has said nothing in public about Japan's simultaneous economic and political meltdowns.

Yet, despite the parallels, the current situation need not end in the same catastrophe of economic, political and social meltdown as occurred in the 1930s.

If the ruble falls, the real fear is not just a run on the currency and another inflationary spiral but political meltdown.

But many of those mechanisms are now in a kind of political meltdown.

Sacramento is in a state of near-perfect political meltdown.

Getting them out without causing a political meltdown will be tricky.