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:

    “We can only write well about our sins because it is too difficult to recall a virtuous act or even whether it was the result of good or evil motives.”
    —Edward Dahlberg (1900–1977)

    “A man should not go where he cannot carry his whole sphere or society with him,Mnot bodily, the whole circle of his friends, but atmospherically. He should preserve in a new company the same attitude of mind and reality of relation, which his daily associates draw him to, else he is shorn of his best beams, and will be an orphan in the merriest club.”
    —Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)

    “Every day confirms my opinion on the superiority of a vicious life—and if Virtue is not its own reward I don’t know any other stipend annexed to it.”
    —George Gordon Noel Byron (1788–1824)