Virtuous Circle and Vicious Circle

Virtuous Circle And Vicious Circle

A virtuous circle and a vicious circle (also referred to as virtuous cycle and vicious cycle) are economic terms. They refer to a complex chain of events that reinforces itself through a feedback loop. A virtuous circle has favorable results, while a vicious circle has detrimental results.

Both circles are complexes of events with no tendency towards equilibrium (at least in the short run). Both systems of events have feedback loops in which each iteration of the cycle reinforces the previous one (positive feedback). These cycles will continue in the direction of their momentum until an external factor intervenes and breaks the cycle. The prefix "hyper-" is sometimes used to describe these cycles if they are extreme. The best-known example of a vicious circle is hyperinflation.

Read more about Virtuous Circle And Vicious Circle:  Vicious Circles in The Subprime Mortgage Crisis, Other Examples

Famous quotes containing the words virtuous, circle and/or vicious:

    I know nothing which life has to offer so satisfying as the profound good understanding, which can subsist, after much exchange of good offices, between two virtuous men, each of whom is sure of himself, and sure of his friend. It is a happiness which postpones all other gratifications, and makes politics, and commerce, and churches, cheap.
    Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)

    They will mark the stone-battlements
    And the circle of them
    With a bright stain.
    They will cast out the dead
    A sight for Priam’s queen to lament
    And her frightened daughters.
    Hilda Doolittle (1886–1961)

    All married couples should learn the art of battle as they should learn the art of making love. Good battle is objective and honest—never vicious or cruel. Good battle is healthy and constructive, and brings to a marriage the principle of equal partnership.
    Ann Landers (b. 1918)