Cost Control

The nation's postmaster general says delivering mail six days a week may no longer be feasible for an agency facing deficits in the billions. John E. Potter told a congressional panel Wednesday that cutting mail delivery by one day a week may be necessary to curb a projected loss of more than $6 billion for this fiscal year. He asked a Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs subcommittee to lift the six-day delivery requirement mandated in 1983.

Wedding photographer Pogos Kuregyan has lowered his prices. FedEx aircraft inspector Dan Wallace is dealing with a salary cut and a retirement fund that's lost half its value. Though prices are down for food, housing, energy and clothing, they can't buy much, because they're living on less. After years of worrying about inflation, some economists fear the opposite could soon happen: deflation, an extended period of falling prices that indicates the economy is in a backward spiral.

Facing further declines in sales, Toyota Motor Corp. said Thursday that it would eliminate bonuses for 3,000 employees, cut executive pay and reduce shifts at its plants in North America. The world's largest automaker saw its U.S. sales fall 15% last year and 32% in January compared with the same month a year earlier. Breaking from custom, the company has not released a forecast for U.S. industry sales in 2009 because the market is so unpredictable.

It's a smaller world after all at Disney's theme parks. Grappling with the deepening recession, Walt Disney Co. announced plans Wednesday to shake up its parks and resorts operation, setting the stage for job cuts in the coming weeks. Under the new structure, the behind-the-scenes operations of Anaheim's Disneyland and Walt Disney World in Orlando, Fla., will be consolidated into a single unit, led by Worldwide Operations President Al Weiss.

What do you want to know about the Web? Are you concerned about online privacy? Do you get what Twitter is, or what the big deal is about social networking? Are you wondering when they're going to invent a more eye-friendly way to read online? Or how the economy is affecting the Internet? Just ask. One reason rabid new media zealots scoff at newspapers is because they're no good at being interactive. The connection between readers and writers is one way: We write. You read. They have a point.

As California and the rest of the nation stagger from massive layoffs and soaring unemployment, companies in Taiwan have largely opted to cut pay and work hours to deal with the economic crisis. Here in Hsinchu Science Park, modeled after California's Silicon Valley, about 100,000 of its 130,000 workers are taking up to 10 days of unpaid leave a month. Part of the reason is pressure from Taiwan's government, they say.

NFL games might be broadcast in high definition, but the financial picture of the league is anything but crisp and clear. Are teams truly concerned about their ability to pay the bills in the midst of an economic crisis, or are they merely posturing for what figures to be a nasty battle over sharing revenues with their players? Is it poor-mouthing, or just being prudent? It could be a little of both.

Amid continuing fallout from the tough economy and volatility of its movie and DVD business, Lions Gate Entertainment Corp. has slashed jobs for the second time in five months. The Santa Monica-based movie and television studio is eliminating 45 positions, or 8% of its 550-person workforce, the company said Friday. The latest downsizing included 27 people who were laid off Friday and 10 who were moved into independent contractor consulting jobs and production deals.

Legislative leaders are weighing contingency plans for a potential fiscal "doomsday" if a slate of ballot measures designed to balance the state budget fails in the May 19 special election. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and the bipartisan team of lawmakers pushing the half-dozen propositions continue to insist that the campaign has just begun and can still be won despite a recent public opinion poll showing all but one measure trailing badly.

New York Times Co. executives have threatened to shut down the Boston Globe if the newspaper's employees don't agree quickly to $20 million in concessions, union leaders said Friday. Executives from the New York company, which owns the Globe, met this week with leaders of the newspaper's 13 unions, the Globe reported. Boston Newspaper Guild President Daniel Totten said the concessions could include pay cuts, the end of company pension contributions and the elimination of lifetime job guarantees.