About WaPo's postal editorial

The Washington Post has an editorial this morning about the Postal Service’s deteriorating finances. Most of it is pretty sensible, but it includes this bizarre claim (emphasis mine):

If it continues on its present course, the U.S. Postal Service stands to post $6 billion to $12 billion in losses by the end of the fiscal year.

I have absolutely no idea where they got this figure. We reported last month that the Postal Service has lost $2.3 billion during the first half of fiscal year 2009. So it would have to lose a whopping $10 billion in just six months to reach the Post‘s worst-case scenario.

A $6 billion loss is very realistic — that’s what the Postal Service itself projects. But $12 billion? No way.

(I do have to give the Post some praise for its headline. “Too Big to Mail”? Catchy.)