Postal Service Default Looms

From Fnno.com, you're watching the Financial News Network. You might want to be extra-nice to your neighborhood mailman or woman in the coming days. The US Postal Service confirmed today that it will miss a $5.5 billion payment due tomorrow to the US Treasury, which is meant to provide for future retirees' health care. The agency is also saying that it won't be able to afford a $5.6 billion payment due by September 30th of this year. In the age of emails, the U.S. Postal Service is barely hanging on. The company, which is second only to Walmart in publicly traded US companies in terms of the number of workers it employs, has been steadily losing money since 2009. In the quarter ending March 31st, it lost $3.2 billion, and it has forecast a loss of $9.1 billion in the 12 months ending September 30th. However, Dave Partenheimer, a Postal Service spokesman, told Bloomberg today that the looming default "has no effect on mail processing or delivery, no impact on post offices, and employees will continue to get paid." For more coverage and analysis of the business world, follow us on Twitter @FNNOnline, or check out our website at fnno.com