# Vicious circle A vicious circle is a complex chain of events that reinforces itself through a feedback loop, with detrimental results — each pass around the loop makes the underlying problem worse rather than better. Because the loop lacks a stabilizing counterforce, it does not settle toward equilibrium on its own; it continues until something external intervenes and breaks the chain. ## Microsim — queued <p class="wt-pending"><strong>Microsim/diagram layer in the draft queue.</strong> Troy is building the interactive station for this concept by hand; the sourced overview below is complete and citable now.</p> ## Overview Historical examples include hyperinflation, where rising prices push wages up which pushes prices up further; the 2008 housing crisis, where falling home values triggered forced selling that pushed values down further; and cycles of poverty, where each constraint reinforces the next. The pattern is the destructive twin of a virtuous circle, both are instances of [[Positive_feedback|positive feedback]] read as a lived narrative rather than a control-theory diagram, and both are exactly what a reinforcing loop names when drawn formally as a [[Causal_loop_diagram|causal loop diagram]]. **On the spine:** [[Positive_feedback]] · [[Causal_loop_diagram]] · [[Negative_feedback]] · [[Feedback]]. ## Wikipedia : Wikitube **Strict pair:** [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vicious_circle) : [Wikitube](https://en.wikitube.io/wiki/Vicious_circle) ## Previous hub tags Hubs: `Systems`. Portals: [[PORTAL_Causal_loop_diagram]]. --- *Repopulated 2026-08-05 · text transfer · 0 deletions.*