rmptr
Silver Member
Postal !
The U.S. Postal Service, which announced deep work force and service cuts in March, reports a $1.9 billion second quarter loss.
The Postal Service says the majority of the loss is the result of what it calls an unprecedented decline in mail volume. It moved 43.8 billion pieces of mail last quarter, down nearly 15 percent from a year ago.
The Postal Service has now lost money for 10 of the last 11 quarters, and warns of a year-end cash shortfall of as much as $1.5 billion.
To counter falling demand for mail, which it blames on both the economy and the growth of e-mail and other forms of communication, the Postal Service is stepping up advertising, and says it is considering a summer sale for standard mail.
It is also hoping for Congressional approval of a plan that would let it divert some of its contributions to a retiree health benefits trust fund to be used to pay current retiree benefits. With approval, the Postal Service says it would reduce its projected 2009 loss by $2 billion.
Earlier this year, the Postal Service said it would offer early retirements to tens of thousands of employees, close several district offices and cut administrative staff. It has already frozen executive salaries and closed or cut back hours at some post office locations.
*Seems to me like it's a falling demand for overpriced marginal services.
*Offered 'early retirement'? Golly gee, I got sent home and advised not to bother
* coming back if the company failed to show a profit!
*And here they go... diverting part of one fund to pay for another!
*When we allowed them to 'privatize', we should have demanded salaries and benefits be linked *to profits.
*Our country DOES need a postal service.
Almost a Quarter of U.S. Homeowners Are Underwater
By Daniel Taub
May 6 (Bloomberg) -- A growing number of U.S. homeowners owe more than their properties are worth after prices extended their two-year decline in the first quarter, Zillow.com said.
About 21.8 percent of all owners were underwater as of March 31, the Seattle-based real estate data service said in a report today. At the end of the fourth quarter, 17.6 percent of homeowners owed more than their original mortgage, while 14.3 percent had negative equity three months earlier.
Property values dropped 14 percent from a year earlier in the first quarter, reducing the median value of U.S. single- family homes, condominiums and cooperatives to $182,378, Zillow said. The decline has left about 20.4 million of the U.S.’s 93 million houses, condos and co-ops with loans higher than the properties are worth. The gain in underwater homeowners will lead to more bank repossessions, Zillow said.
Many owners “would be more willing to bear the financial consequences of bankruptcy or foreclosure,” Stan Humphries, Zillow’s vice president of data and analytics, said in an interview. “You are going to continue to see home prices fall for the rest of this year and some portion of next year.”
*It's been months now when discussion was heated over 1 and 2%.
*I didn't see a reason for improvement then, nor can I see one now.
*There are far too many restrictions by a gubment far too large.
*Days of prosperity are gone until we see an opportunity, and reward, to produce.
*IMO, This is NOT going to stop declining until an average worker can afford to buy average *shelter for his/her average family. THAT, is what our children NEED!
Stock market rallies on diminishing worker layoffs
By Bob Willis
May 6 (Bloomberg) -- Companies in the U.S. cut fewer jobs in April, indicating the worst of the recession’s employment losses may have passed, a private report showed today.
Payrolls fell by an estimated 491,000 workers last month, less than economists forecast and the fewest since October, figures from ADP Employer Services today showed. March’s reading was revised to show a reduction of 708,000 workers, down from a previous estimate of 742,000.
*Whoopee! Is that GOOD news? 1.2 million workers sent home in two months?
*Excuse me?
Here's an interesting clip from Ilargi...
There are in America today, as per the polls, millions who trust Obama no matter what he does, and many more whose curiosity is satisfied by the messages his spin campaign puts out. You need only to look at the rise in the Dow or the S&P indices to see that the campaign largely works so far. Even though there's no evidence that anything there says overall financial and economic conditions have improved, it does indicate a high level of gullibility. I refuse to even contemplate that i'm the only person who'd be baffled by the fact that the AIG bonuses blow-out fizzled as it did, and led to no other outrages, while injustices a thousand time larger go unnoticed.
But all that's just the way in which the second part of how you go from an economical crisis to a political one pans out. And it becomes boring, once you figure out that no-one can be trusted to believe in what they say, that presidents can be, and are, sold like detergents, that is, in reference to people's base instincts instead of their rational grasp of their lives. Bad enough as the lack of truth and openness may be, I do think that the number one reason I mentioned above that causes a financial crisis to explode into a political one, is more important (and I say that knowing that they feed off each other).
To reiterate, I posed this question: "what do the parties subject to the crisis, the citizens (voters), business leaders and policy makers, see and expect going forward?" The reason I think this is even more important than all the lies (I saw all politicians MUST lie or change jobs years ago), is that an entire gamut of policies all based on dead wrong assumptions on where things are headed is far more harmful than doing the right things without telling voters. I know, I risk eating my own tail here, don't I? Then again, what can you possibly expect to come from this:
Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis President Gary Stern said : "....come the middle of next year, I would expect to see a resumption of healthy growth".
Followed by:
"... it is difficult at this stage to identify with conviction the engine, or engines, of expansion..."
See, it's a tremendous confidence booster to have Fed officials declare "healthy growth" is just around the corner, and follow that up with admitting they have not a single clue where that growth would come from. I believe, I believe. That's why what these people see going forward is crucial. And if you look closely, that's all we've got, and that's all we get, belief. And even without getting into the semantics of what sort of growth is "healthy" when you, just to name an example, have a ocean of plastic the size of Western Europe floating on top of the Pacific Ocean, cleaning up of which would take more than the entire and rapidly diminishing annual US GDP, at a certain point you’ll be forced to look into the mental health of Mr. Stern and all his counter peers. Thing is, it'll be way too late once we get around to doing that. And that's how, and why, we find ourselves in a political crisis.
* "... it is difficult at this stage to identify with conviction the engine, or engines, of expansion..."
What are your thoughts?
Best
rmptr
The U.S. Postal Service, which announced deep work force and service cuts in March, reports a $1.9 billion second quarter loss.
The Postal Service says the majority of the loss is the result of what it calls an unprecedented decline in mail volume. It moved 43.8 billion pieces of mail last quarter, down nearly 15 percent from a year ago.
The Postal Service has now lost money for 10 of the last 11 quarters, and warns of a year-end cash shortfall of as much as $1.5 billion.
To counter falling demand for mail, which it blames on both the economy and the growth of e-mail and other forms of communication, the Postal Service is stepping up advertising, and says it is considering a summer sale for standard mail.
It is also hoping for Congressional approval of a plan that would let it divert some of its contributions to a retiree health benefits trust fund to be used to pay current retiree benefits. With approval, the Postal Service says it would reduce its projected 2009 loss by $2 billion.
Earlier this year, the Postal Service said it would offer early retirements to tens of thousands of employees, close several district offices and cut administrative staff. It has already frozen executive salaries and closed or cut back hours at some post office locations.
*Seems to me like it's a falling demand for overpriced marginal services.
*Offered 'early retirement'? Golly gee, I got sent home and advised not to bother
* coming back if the company failed to show a profit!
*And here they go... diverting part of one fund to pay for another!
*When we allowed them to 'privatize', we should have demanded salaries and benefits be linked *to profits.
*Our country DOES need a postal service.
Almost a Quarter of U.S. Homeowners Are Underwater
By Daniel Taub
May 6 (Bloomberg) -- A growing number of U.S. homeowners owe more than their properties are worth after prices extended their two-year decline in the first quarter, Zillow.com said.
About 21.8 percent of all owners were underwater as of March 31, the Seattle-based real estate data service said in a report today. At the end of the fourth quarter, 17.6 percent of homeowners owed more than their original mortgage, while 14.3 percent had negative equity three months earlier.
Property values dropped 14 percent from a year earlier in the first quarter, reducing the median value of U.S. single- family homes, condominiums and cooperatives to $182,378, Zillow said. The decline has left about 20.4 million of the U.S.’s 93 million houses, condos and co-ops with loans higher than the properties are worth. The gain in underwater homeowners will lead to more bank repossessions, Zillow said.
Many owners “would be more willing to bear the financial consequences of bankruptcy or foreclosure,” Stan Humphries, Zillow’s vice president of data and analytics, said in an interview. “You are going to continue to see home prices fall for the rest of this year and some portion of next year.”
*It's been months now when discussion was heated over 1 and 2%.
*I didn't see a reason for improvement then, nor can I see one now.
*There are far too many restrictions by a gubment far too large.
*Days of prosperity are gone until we see an opportunity, and reward, to produce.
*IMO, This is NOT going to stop declining until an average worker can afford to buy average *shelter for his/her average family. THAT, is what our children NEED!
Stock market rallies on diminishing worker layoffs
By Bob Willis
May 6 (Bloomberg) -- Companies in the U.S. cut fewer jobs in April, indicating the worst of the recession’s employment losses may have passed, a private report showed today.
Payrolls fell by an estimated 491,000 workers last month, less than economists forecast and the fewest since October, figures from ADP Employer Services today showed. March’s reading was revised to show a reduction of 708,000 workers, down from a previous estimate of 742,000.
*Whoopee! Is that GOOD news? 1.2 million workers sent home in two months?
*Excuse me?
Depression Men, Maynardville, Tennessee, 1935
"Looking for a Way Out"
Here's an interesting clip from Ilargi...
There are in America today, as per the polls, millions who trust Obama no matter what he does, and many more whose curiosity is satisfied by the messages his spin campaign puts out. You need only to look at the rise in the Dow or the S&P indices to see that the campaign largely works so far. Even though there's no evidence that anything there says overall financial and economic conditions have improved, it does indicate a high level of gullibility. I refuse to even contemplate that i'm the only person who'd be baffled by the fact that the AIG bonuses blow-out fizzled as it did, and led to no other outrages, while injustices a thousand time larger go unnoticed.
But all that's just the way in which the second part of how you go from an economical crisis to a political one pans out. And it becomes boring, once you figure out that no-one can be trusted to believe in what they say, that presidents can be, and are, sold like detergents, that is, in reference to people's base instincts instead of their rational grasp of their lives. Bad enough as the lack of truth and openness may be, I do think that the number one reason I mentioned above that causes a financial crisis to explode into a political one, is more important (and I say that knowing that they feed off each other).
To reiterate, I posed this question: "what do the parties subject to the crisis, the citizens (voters), business leaders and policy makers, see and expect going forward?" The reason I think this is even more important than all the lies (I saw all politicians MUST lie or change jobs years ago), is that an entire gamut of policies all based on dead wrong assumptions on where things are headed is far more harmful than doing the right things without telling voters. I know, I risk eating my own tail here, don't I? Then again, what can you possibly expect to come from this:
Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis President Gary Stern said : "....come the middle of next year, I would expect to see a resumption of healthy growth".
Followed by:
"... it is difficult at this stage to identify with conviction the engine, or engines, of expansion..."
See, it's a tremendous confidence booster to have Fed officials declare "healthy growth" is just around the corner, and follow that up with admitting they have not a single clue where that growth would come from. I believe, I believe. That's why what these people see going forward is crucial. And if you look closely, that's all we've got, and that's all we get, belief. And even without getting into the semantics of what sort of growth is "healthy" when you, just to name an example, have a ocean of plastic the size of Western Europe floating on top of the Pacific Ocean, cleaning up of which would take more than the entire and rapidly diminishing annual US GDP, at a certain point you’ll be forced to look into the mental health of Mr. Stern and all his counter peers. Thing is, it'll be way too late once we get around to doing that. And that's how, and why, we find ourselves in a political crisis.
* "... it is difficult at this stage to identify with conviction the engine, or engines, of expansion..."
What are your thoughts?
Best
rmptr
