The author is parroting the socialist meme.
The "virtuous cycle" is a statist concept, originating in Europe and adopted by Bernanke, postulating that government intervention in the economy can create a virtuous cycle of improved economic performance. In a speech given before he became Chairmen, Bernanke adopted the concept and suggested that the Fed could directly cause an increase in equity prices. It is widely speculated that Bernanke has been implementing this intervention in the equity markets through the New York Fed.
This Fed action is already a failure, merely causing equity prices to disconnect from the performance of the balance of the economy.
It makes sense that in the short term balance sheets will look better as companies layoff employees ahead of poor sales projections.