Those dreaded words you never want to hear as an investor. But check out the Fortune Magazine graphic of this recession relative to others since the WWII. Yes it’s a balance sheet problem and the economy needs more time to heal and delever.
We also maintain, however, at least some, if not much of the weakness, especially in the labor market, is structural and not cyclical. Take the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) as the poster child of the current problems plaguing the U.S. labor market. The USPS has 571,566 full-time workers making it the country’s second-largest civilian employer after Wal-Mart. It has eliminated 110,000 jobs in the past four years and according to the FT,
During the next five years, the service plans to cut 220,000 staff "“ about 120,000 through lay-offs "“ and close up to 300 processing centres on top of plans to shutter up to 3,700 post offices released last month.
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