Is Iceland the only government experiencing (facing) collapse?

Iceland first EU govt to collapse in wake of economic crisis The government of Iceland has collapsed, becoming the first European government to do so as a direct result of the economic crisis. Iceland's Prime Minister Geir Haarde said his government would step down with immediate effect. Haarde said last Friday that he would step down as leader of the Independence Party at a party conference in March and has called for elections on May 9. Iceland was one of the richest countries in the world per capita in 2007 but plunged into crisis in October due to the global credit crunch. The country negotiated an 8 billion euro aid package put together by the International Monetary Fund to stay afloat.
Additional Business Week article here.

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Permalink Reply by Steve Levy on January 29, 2009 at 10:01am

Really depends upon what your definition of collapse is...

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Permalink Reply by Maureen Sharib on January 29, 2009 at 10:03am

I was wondering the same thing - what does it mean when a government collapses?

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Permalink Reply by Careers In Holland on January 29, 2009 at 2:22pm

The collapse in this case might also refer to the government stepping down after days of fierce protest by tens of thousands of Icelanders (which is a lot in light of the total population being only approx. 300.000....). Apart from that, Iceland has effectively gone bankrupt. The growth in last years heavily depended on the banking sector, which is as we all know, hm, not quite well at the moment. So as the banks go broke, so does the country.

Other European countries still have enough to spend to support banks and other sectors from going down totally, with measures similar to what is being done in the US. However a bank like UBS in Switzerland is so big, if it tumbles the country itself simply can't pay the bill. Then there would be real trouble....