Icahn is right though. So many large companies have levered up their balance sheets at low interest rates to buy back stock at ever increasing prices in order to manufacture rising EPS. When there's a recession, these companies will come under pressure of their heavier debt burden. He also pointed out that the high yield market is $2 trillion now vs. $1 trillion at the 2007 peak.
His investment vehicle, IEP, has done poorly due to his large energy positions that have been crushed by the commodity collapse. Investor Jim Rogers says he doesn't see a lot of supply coming to the market. Maybe once China's current collapse is over in a few years, commodities would form a bottom.
Mr. Icahn says he's trying to warn about the danger of ZIRP to hopefully prevent catastrophe, but as John Burbank says, the situation of this non-mean-reverting divergence is going toward the path of inevitability.
Yes, good summary...this is just a small portion of the distortion of ZIRP...i.e. the mis-allocation of capital manifests itself in ever more perverse manifestations...it's also interesting to take note of the sectors that experienced large credit growth (namely student loans), and others have noted, this was an attempt to mask the weakness of the job market and the "career student" who also used those loans for "lifestyle" spending...