  It is demonstrated how the hierarchy between the gauge coupling unification
scale of minimal supersymmetry and the Planck (or string) scale, which
resembles in order of magnitude a loop factor, can actually be explained as
such in supergravity-coupled supersymmetry. A gauge and global singlet field
acquires a linear potential term due to its one-loop supergravity interactions
and slides to the desired scale. The singlet field can then provide the seed
for the breaking of the unified theory at the appropriate scale via its
couplings to fields in the adjoint representation.
