“We call this getting yourself in a square corner, when you run out of ideas and experience at the same time,” said Mr. Barr, a fighter pilot in the Vietnam War. “[…] Even for a good pilot, that could produce a death spiral.”

There are four types of death spirals, named for the edge on which the lady is skating—forward outside, forward inside, back outside, or back inside.

But what followed for Lozano, his grieving family claims, was a death spiral into infantilism and madness.

The markets are in meltdown, intensifying the downward pirouette of what the international financier George Soros has called "Greece's death spiral".

When the price of Luna plummeted in May, TerraUSD fell in tandem — a “death spiral” that destabilized the broader market and plunged some investors into financial ruin.

Death spiral

Meaning

Noun

Synonyms