I was wondering why this decline in demand was so apparently devastating, since it normally wouldn't be unless a company had a very large debt load. And here's

I was wondering why this decline in demand was so apparently devastating, since it normally wouldn't be unless a company had a very large debt load. And here's the reason: "They can’t make money selling electricity; monopoly regulations forbid it. Instead, they make money by earning a rate of return on investments in electrical power plants and infrastructure." Ah, so their entire business model is structured on ever-expanding capital investments, not the sale of the actual product. That sounds curiously like the description of a Ponzi scheme, especially considering you can't have perpetual, uninterrupted growth forever - at minimum the country has a finite amount of resources.