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‘Ultimately, debt payments come due, either in economic contraction or massive taxation or inflation.’ Friedburg talking about how Japan had to raise rates for the first time in years because Japan now has inflation. He often talks about the importance of the US government debt,which most people treat lightly and basically don't worry about.
Japan's central bank buys most of the debt, and it sets the rates. 50% of their public debt is held by the central bank there.
Japan's system (which hurts, perhaps, Japanese consumers) perhaps benefits US, because Japanese consumer subsidizes buying of US treasuries.
Japan can't raise rates easily because their debt will become even more expensive to service.
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Citidel runs $50b but is allowed to lever up 15x or more, and maybe is leveraged to $1t. Their leverage ratio maybe is risky to the economy.
JPM estimates 3/4 of carry trades have been unwound. But now is actually an even better time to just put that same trade back on, because Japan capitulated and said they weren't going to raise rates anymore (so they'll just let their currency inflate). If they had stayed firm in raising rates, who knows.
Bershire most of its companies are regulated monopolies, ie have a moat and price set by the government, BNSF, Geico.
Apple is a bit wayward. It doesn't really know what to do, despite having money, customers, etc.