I think you're missing the point. Perhaps it's my fault. The point of the analogy is not that there are two things that are equally countering each other. Instead, it is to suggest that there is one thing. You can look at it in terms of its "rising risk assets" facet, or you can look at it in terms of its "falling dollar" facet. But these are simply two faces of the same phenomenon: Financial leverage is free while we soak the banks and the economy in a pool of money to rebuild balance sheets. In fact, even cheaper than free if the dollar falls - Dollar debt is effectively a short position in dollars b/c it costs less to pay it back if the dollar gets cheaper while the borrowed capital is in the form of another asset. But it's not just the carry trade. Itâs all the money, and the fact that it has no more productive use than to move around in financial markets b/c no one wants to step up production and capital goods in this scene. Also, it's not like US stocks are a special case. It's basically every financial asset in the world.