On Thursday, December 28, 2017, a Los Angeles publication mailed me a check via the United States Postal Service. I received the check on January 18, 2018, a full 21 days after it had been mailed, so the cost worked out to just pennies a day. On the other hand, in 21 days I…
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Customers of Staples Inc. have been enjoying the conveniences of in-store postal services but as Bloomberg reports, that will soon come to an end. The cancellation is a “coup for the Postal Service’s largest union,” the American Postal Workers Union, which fought Staples’ merger with Office Depot and urged customers to boycott the company….
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As we have noted, the United States Postal Service (USPS) is a perennial loser, always billions in the red, with taxpayers on the hook. On the other hand, whatever the losses, the USPS finds a way to give postal bosses a pay hike. As a visit to any post office will confirm, the regular…
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In January, the United States Postal Service hiked the price of stamps and its package shipping increased, but as Reuters reports, “The U.S. Postal Service continued to bleed money during its second quarter.” From April to June, the USPS lost $2 billion, compared with $1.9 billion in the first quarter and $740 million in…
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As Josh Hicks reports in the Washington Post, the U.S. Postal Service lost $1.9 billion in the second quarter, and the losses come despite increases in revenues, higher prices for stamps, and a boost in USPS package shipping. The losses, Hicks notes, mark “the 20th time in the last 22 quarters in which the…
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Early 2014, with tax time approaching, is a good time to recall some hard realities. New government entitlements such as Obamacare are proving a colossal bust, and the federal government has been busy creating brand new agencies of dubious utility, such as the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau. None of that means that older federal…
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The United States Postal Service (USPS) lost nearly $16 billion last year, and attempts at reform have proved futile. USPS bosses, who continued to get raises during the recession, want to end Saturday delivery. Trouble is, Congress won’t let them do it, prohibiting a return to a five-day delivery schedule. The USPS expects to…
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The federal government gave $17.9 million to economically struggling rural timber counties in the west for conservation projects, schools, roads, rescue operations and such. Now the federal government wants the money back. A letter of protest signed by more than 30 House members, including Democrats, said: “For the administration to announce three months after…
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The hefty raises given to U.S. Postal Service bosses did not prevent losses of more than $15 billion last year. The postal bosses now want to reduce those massive losses by eliminating Saturday mail delivery, a congressional mandate dating from 1981. But since 2007 first-class mail volume has declined by 37 percent, giving way…
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In October we noted that the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) had recently defaulted on a $5.6 billion mandate to pre-fund retiree health benefits, the second time in two months the USPS had failed to deliver. In August it failed to make a $5.5 billion retirement prepayment slated for last September, which Congress conveniently deferred….
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