A maelstrom is a powerful whirlpool. A luckless ship might go down in one, conflicting ocean currents might cause one. You hear it more often metaphorically, to describe disasters where many competing forces are at play.
When an economy or a government fails, the situation is often described as a maelstrom. Following some precipitous event, all the forces at play––banks, governments, consumers––are trying as hard as they can to protect themselves. This creates a maelstrom — a perfect storm, so to speak — that drags any potential for rescue down with it. Maelstrom comes from an obsolete Dutch phrase meaning "whirling stream."
