Index: Lib/test/test_cmd_line.py
===================================================================
--- Lib/test/test_cmd_line.py	(revision 61411)
+++ Lib/test/test_cmd_line.py	(working copy)
@@ -13,18 +13,25 @@
                             stdout=subprocess.PIPE, stderr=subprocess.STDOUT)
 
 def _kill_python(p):
+    return _kill_python_and_exit_code(p)[0]
+    
+def _kill_python_and_exit_code(p):
     p.stdin.close()
     data = p.stdout.read()
     p.stdout.close()
     # try to cleanup the child so we don't appear to leak when running
     # with regrtest -R.  This should be a no-op on Windows.
     subprocess._cleanup()
-    return data
+    returncode = p.wait()
+    return data, returncode
 
 class CmdLineTest(unittest.TestCase):
     def start_python(self, *args):
+        return self.start_python_and_exit_code(*args)[0]
+
+    def start_python_and_exit_code(self, *args):
         p = _spawn_python(*args)
-        return _kill_python(p)
+        return _kill_python_and_exit_code(p)
 
     def exit_code(self, *args):
         cmd_line = [sys.executable, '-E']
@@ -61,6 +68,17 @@
         version = ('Python %d.%d' % sys.version_info[:2]).encode("ascii")
         self.assertTrue(self.start_python('-V').startswith(version))
 
+    def test_verbose(self):
+        # -v causes imports to write to stderr.  If the write to
+        # stderr itself causes an import to happen (for the output
+        # codec), a recursion loop can occur.
+        data, rc = self.start_python_and_exit_code('-v')
+        self.assertEqual(rc, 0)
+        self.assertTrue(b'stack overflow' not in data)
+        data, rc = self.start_python_and_exit_code('-vv')
+        self.assertEqual(rc, 0)
+        self.assertTrue(b'stack overflow' not in data)
+        
     def test_run_module(self):
         # Test expected operation of the '-m' switch
         # Switch needs an argument
Index: Python/pythonrun.c
===================================================================
--- Python/pythonrun.c	(revision 61411)
+++ Python/pythonrun.c	(working copy)
@@ -733,6 +733,7 @@
 	PyObject *m;
 	PyObject *std = NULL;
 	int status = 0, fd;
+	PyObject * encoding_attr;
 
 	/* Hack to avoid a nasty recursion issue when Python is invoked
 	   in verbose mode: pre-import the Latin-1 and UTF-8 codecs */
@@ -823,6 +824,19 @@
 			goto error;
 		}
 	} /* if (fd < 0) */
+
+	/* Same as hack above, pre-import stderr's codec to avoid recursion
+	   when import.c tries to write to stderr in verbose mode. */
+	encoding_attr = PyObject_GetAttrString(std, "encoding");
+	if (encoding_attr != NULL) {
+		const char * encoding;
+		encoding = PyUnicode_AsString(encoding_attr);
+		if (encoding != NULL) {
+			_PyCodec_Lookup(encoding);
+		}
+	}
+	PyErr_Clear();  /* Not a fatal error if codec isn't available */
+
 	PySys_SetObject("__stderr__", std);
 	PySys_SetObject("stderr", std);
 	Py_DECREF(std);