Thanks for your questions, John.

If by 'cycle', you mean the credit cycle (rather than the economic cycle), then I do not think it will ever end. Debt is now a core feature of modern economies. But of course, we could go through a tightening of credit terms. The timing of such events is always difficult to predict.

Inflation is not inevitable, and although recent weeks have seen many press articles report the rise of inflation, in truth asset price inflation has been with us for well over 5 years - hence your question regarding equities and P/E ratios. In reality, of course, earnings multiples are much higher than reported due to the manipulation of earnings (https://blogs.stage.cfainstitute.org/investor/2019/08/09/rising-risk-ac…).

It is impossible to anticipate what will happen to equity markets, but the fact that asset holdings are so heavily leveraged does not bode well. The next crisis should experience huge volatility as investors seek to cover debt commitments. That is, if debt commitments are real. Note my point in the article: debt products are a lot more flexible nowadays than they used to be. So it is up to creditors/lenders to decide whether they are happy to let borrowers default and, instead, to consent to renegotiate the terms of distressed loans.