The US Post Office, facing the largest budgetary shortfall in its long history, is trying to cut some of the costs. Despite a legal monopoly on first class mail, the volume of mail they’re handling is dropping by double digit percentages annually. To deal with these losses, the Post Office has offered the solution of not delivering on Saturdays.

If Congress approves the head postmaster’s proposal, the change will take effect as early as October.

USPS officials say the move will help the postal service save $3.3 billion a year.

But, around 49,000 people may lose their jobs with the postal service as a result of the changes.

The Myrtle Beach postmaster says the volume of mail delivered nationwide dropped by 13% in 2009 and is expected to fall by 11% this year.

Either way things look sort of bleak, don’t they? Either the Post Office goes into a staggering amount of debt, gets bailed out by Congress, or 49,000 people lose their jobs.

While economists and financial prognosticators all over the nation are claiming the recession is coming to an end, pending home sales numbers dropped. In the month of January, the index fell by 7.6%.

In another sign that the U.S. housing recovery might be on a shaky foundation, the number of homes placed under sales contract fell 7.6% in January, according to a national index.

The National Assn. of Realtors said Thursday that its pending home sales index, a forward-looking indicator based on contracts signed in January, fell to 90.4 from an upwardly revised 97.8 in December.

It isn’t all bad news, though, the index remains 12.3% higher than in January of 2009. As for the reason sales declined, the NAR blamed the cold weather and snow in January for the decline, which seems dubious.