[rsync]

"I don't buy this analogy. Bankruptcy isn't the only market discipline. If a firm is underperforming, then it will be bought up and sold for parts. This happens all the time, and low interest rates only make it easier."

The cheap financing allows these firms to disguise the fact that they are underperforming.

So whatever form of "market discipline" might occur, these firms are shielded from it because they can just keep rolling over their debt obligations while continuing to pretend they are competitive in the marketplace.

[imtringued]

There is this customer who isn't buying anything for the next 10 years, ergo there must be a company that isn't producing anything over the next 10 years. The fact that they roll over their debt tells you nothing about the company, only about the customer.