Global debt is really a measure of the complexity & interconnectedness of the economy. Like you say, all debt is somebody else's asset. When total debt loads

Global debt is really a measure of the complexity & interconnectedness of the economy. Like you say, all debt is somebody else's asset. When total debt loads rise it just means that there are more links between firms in the economy, where somebody else's financial picture can affect yours. The downside, like the sibling comment mentions, is that complex systems have complex failure modes. Additional links between firms raises the chance that you could get a cascading solvency crisis. I'd really like to see who holds the debt. Is it widely dispersed - say lots of individual retirees owning government bonds? Or is it a few big financial firms who own all the assets with lots of little debtors? That has big implications for what inflation incentives are.