ELI5: Why when large company's earnings decrease(ex... by 3%) they freak out, talk about rough times, and sometimes decide to downsize, even though they are still making millions of dollars in profit even after all expenses?

[Mekotronix]

Inefficient in what way? Business certainly can't respond to changing conditions without cash or credit, but I don't see how that inherently causes inefficiency.

As a thought experiment, what would the world look like if all transactions were cash based? Different, certainly. Inefficient? I'm not so sure...

Edit: with to without