IF there is one convenience that historians will find in sorting out the precipitous collapse of Communism, it is the tidy way in which events have fallen into calendar years.

The creation of the bubble is followed by a precipitous collapse fueled by the same phenomenon.

This starts a major sell-off, leading to a sudden and precipitous collapse in market-clearing asset prices, a sharp drop in market liquidity, and a severe demand for cash.

Analysts said the precipitous collapse of oil and gas prices in the first half of the year adversely affected many smaller exploration, production and service companies.

Industrial output has stabilised, too, after falling over 60% in 1991-92, the most precipitous economic collapse in Eastern Europe (having fallen that far, it could hardly have got worse).

Yet to anyone who had watched the precipitous collapse of Communism in the rest of the Soviet empire last fall, Moscow's political struggles seemed already antiquated.

The magazine also covered the rise and subsequent precipitous collapse of the law firm of Finley, Kumble, Wagner, Underberg, Manley, Myerson & Casey in 1987.

The precipitous collapse of the royalist armies and of the Spanish colonial regime in 1821 opened a future obscured by competing visions.

What is the truth behind Enron's precipitous collapse?

This sparked the beginning of a precipitous collapse by Clampett that saw him finish with rounds of 78 and 77 and finish in a tie for 10th.