Thread: Its the end of the world as we know it. (USPS glory days are gone)

Ray that's all well and good, but the bottom line is quite simple. The American Government currently can't pay its bills and is having to borrow money to do so. There's nothing complex about that; no beliefs are required, that's a plain fact expressed in its most simple form. Now of course what they intend doing about it and whether that's the correct path is where economic opinions and faiths come in to play. Currently the government is, for all intents and purposes, choosing to do nothing and hoping the problem will go away. Well, not quite true, they're borrowing yet more money and cutting federal costs. Which brings me back to the topic of the thread, this is why the USPS service has been so lousy, cut costs particularly where the constituents can't see the cuts.

I honestly think it's terrific that you have such faith in the US economy, many people certainly don't. However this is not about economic opinion, what I've outlined above is economic fact, nobody in their right mind can dispute the situation as it stands. What happens going forward is where the question and uncertainty lies. Warren Buffet can say what he likes (and personally I'd agree with him regarding the rating agencies), but there seems to be little real effort to turn this ship around. [NOW comes the economic opinion part] Most economic opinion I've read seems to suggest that increasing taxes will be the only way the US can be expected to emerge from this situation. But as you're probably aware, that in itself has significant economic implications; precisely what the domestic economy doesn't need. It's also politically difficult, with the Republicans stating outright that they will never approve tax increases.

At the end of the day Ray I think we're going to have to agree to disagree on the outlook and we're all going to have to wait and see what happens.

Pete