The latest to join the "I told you so" series is low-cost carrier Spirit Airlines, which, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal, is preparing to declare bankruptcy.

Its dispossessed shareholders will not be wrong to claim that it was the federal government that killed their company by prohibiting its takeover by JetBlue earlier this year. In the summer of 2022, JetBlue had offered $33.5 per share to acquire Spirit, but the competition authorities had vetoed the offer.

Spirit's share price has been divided by ten since the initial offer and, following the WSJ's revelations, is still down 62% before the US market opens. If Spirit shareholders are grieving, JetBlue shareholders must be popping champagne - because they've had a close call.

Back in January, we wrote that only a takeover could save Spirit, in the hope that the synergies arising from its integration - always more obvious in theory than in practice - into a larger-scale player would make its operation viable.

Despite impressive growth, the company's finances stayed stubbornly in the red. Year after year, Spirit's cash flow resembled a sieve. To keep the lights on, the company piled on debt to precarious heights.

Its shareholders' equity was worth nothing, since 96% of its $7 billion enterprise value was represented by debt, for a group whose operations still showed a $400 million deficit last year.

Spirit had piled up debt to finance the development of its fleet, routes and infrastructure, but returns on investment remained pathetic. Despite the marked increase in activity, profits were going in the opposite direction - to the ground, and even underground. The destruction of value was obvious.

As losses mounted, the cost of capital soared. No matter how much the company put the brakes on its investments, its margins for maneuver had become far too narrow for it to hope to recover. And this in a market where demand was exceptionally strong.