GovernmentExecutive.com

Here's two pieces of agency economic news that aren't quite what they seem at first glance. The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation reported Wednesday that it finished fiscal 2006 with a deficit of $18.1 billion. The Postal Service, meanwhile, said it ended up with a $900 million surplus. But the PBGC's report was actually good news, because the $18 billion figure is down from a shortfall of $22.8 billion in 2005 and a record $23.3 billion in 2004. And the Postal Service is still required to put $3 billion worth of pension overpayments into an escrow account, meaning that it technically ran a deficit of $2.1 billion.