vicious circle

• vicious cycle

vicious circle (plural vicious circles)

1. A situation in which the response to one problem creates a chain of problems, each making it more difficult to solve the original one.
   • 1961 November, “Talking of Trains: London Transport in 1960”, in Trains Illustrated, page 656:

     Meanwhile street congestion grows worse and the vicious circle tightens of private motor-cars which impede L.T.E. buses in Central London and of exasperated bus travellers who therefore take to using their own cars.

2. (logic) A fallacy in which the premise is used to prove a conclusion which is then used to prove the premise.

• (logical fallacy): begging the question, circular argument, petitio principii

• virtuous circle

• slippery slope

• vicious circle on Wikipedia.Wikipedia