Archive - Feb 6, 2013 - Story

The completely bankrupt US Postal Service, employer of some 500,000 government workers, which for the past two quarters has been surviving on liquidity fumes even as it posted it biggest ever loss in Fiscal 2012, and which recently announced its latest stamp price hike (which bought it two extra weeks of time), has just disclosed what was long anticipated: the end of Saturday mail delivery - a crushing blow to shippers of junk mail everywhere. Look for many more weekdays of mail delivery to be cut before the USPS itself has to be bailed out. In the meantime, the USPS can spend what little money it does not have on TV ads on channels such as CNBC whose viewers are certainly unaware of the services provided by this most bloated of legacy government entities.

• Tunisian opposition politician shot dead, protests erupt (Reuters)
• China says extremely concerned after latest North Korea threats (Reuters)
• Postal Service to cut Saturday mail to trim costs (AP)
• Debt Rise Colors Budget Talks (WSJ)
• Obama proposes short-term budget fix, Republicans swiftly object (Reuters)
• S&P Analyst Joked of Bringing Down the House Before Crash (BBG)
• Dell’s Bigger Challenge Ahead in Turnaround After Buyout (BBG)
• Some of the Mark Carney Gloss Is Coming Off (WSJ)
• Japan Official Says BOJ Tools Sufficient as Shake-Up Looms (BBG)
• S&P Lawsuit Undermined by SEC Rules That Impede Competition (BBG)
• Heavy Clashes Erupt in Syrian Capital (WSJ)

Perhaps the biggest news of the night was the resurgence of Silvio Berlusconi, who managed to close the lead to the Democratic Party leader Bersani, embroiled in the fallout from the Monte Paschi scandal, to just 3.7 points, or within the 4 point margin of error, before the February 25th elections. According to a SkyTG24 poll, support for Bersani’s bloc dropped 0.2 point to 33.1% from yesterday while support for Berlusconi’s bloc rose 0.1 point to 29.4%. This is certainly the most catalytically destabilizing event on the horizon for Italy, and Europe, as should Silvio win the Italian elections, an outcome unthinkable as recently as a month ago, all bets about Europe's technocratic/Goldman-forced "recovery" in which only the banks are recovering, if not the people, are off.