The U.S. Postal Service on Thursday reported a $5.2 billion quarterly loss and said it was nearly out of cash and likely to exhaust its government credit line in coming months, The Wall Street Journal reported yesterday. The agency said the loss is its widest since it began releasing quarterly financials in 2007, but Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe said that the Postal Service will do whatever it takes to maintain its operations, even if that means defaulting on a second multi-billion-dollar retiree obligation in as many months. The Postal Service's loss for its third quarter ended June 30 compared with a $3.1 billion loss for the like period a year earlier. Donahoe said that the Postal Service would pay its employees and critical vendors but might skip some payments to others. The Postal Service defaulted for the first time in its history on Aug. 1, failing to pay $5.5 billion for future retiree health benefits. A similar $5.6 billion payment is due at the end of next month. The agency said it wouldn't make that either, unless Congress acts.
