Post office has $1.9 billion loss in quarter

[America2]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090506/ap_on_go_ot/us_postal_woes

WASHINGTON – The post office was $1.9 billion in the red for the second quarter of the fiscal year and continues to face the possibility of running out of money before year's end.

The agency cited the recession and movement of mail to electronic communications in announcing the loss on Wednesday.

Postal rates go up on Monday, but the increase — to 44 cents for first-class mail — is unlikely to cover the entire shortfall.

The second quarter loss brings the total loss for the fiscal year — which began Oct. 1 — to $2.3 billion................

[donnay]

During financial crisis, the Postal Service was a national stalwart. Post offices started government-guaranteed savings accounts in 1911 after a banking collapse. When citizens didn't trust banks, they did trust the post office. After the bank failures of the Great Depression, post office deposits grew tenfold to $1.2 billion. (Postal savings accounts peaked shortly after World War II and ended in 1967.)

http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2009-02-02-postal_N.htm

This is the only service, constitutionally, that the Congress should allocate bailouts too.