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How Postal Rate Hikes Foretell America’s Future
Tweet Share on Facebook July 7, 2010 Comment (145)The post office isn't obsolete yet, but it will be soon if Congress continues with business as usual. And if Congress can't fix the postal service, it's a grim indicator of its ability to rein in the national debt, curtail runaway entitlement spending, or get the economy back on track.
The U.S. Postal Service wants to raise the price of a stamp by 2 cents to 46 cents—a 4.5 percent increase. But it needs to do a lot more to join the 21st century. Postmaster General John Potter also wants to eliminate Saturday delivery, close low-volume post offices, open new outlets in shopping centers and other places where people normally shop, and broaden the merchandise beyond just shipping supplies. Imagine, for example, a vending machine selling snacks at the venerable post office. Far out.
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What It Will Take For Hiring to Revive
Tweet Share on Facebook July 2, 2010 Comment (1)A funny thing happened on the way to the bailouts: Nobody really worried about jobs.
In early 2009, when the Federal Reserve was preparing its "stress tests" of 19 big banks, economists expected the 2010 unemployment rate to average about 8.8 percent. Whoops. So far this year, it's ranged from 9.5 to 9.9 percent, and it could crest 10 percent later this year as discouraged workers who gave up looking for work rejoin the labor force and start looking again. Every percentage point in the unemployment rate represents about 1.4 million jobs. So the forecasters missed badly when they low-balled the unemployment rate last year.
