Hudgins USPS OpEd published by Reuters

November 19, 2013 -- Reuters has published an OpEd by Atlas Society senior scholar Ed Hudgins on the "death spiral" of the U.S.P.S. Excerpt:

The U.S. Postal Service is now in a fiscal death spiral as the communications and information revolution has eaten into many of its profitable services. Mail volume peaked in 2000 and has dropped by almost one-third since then. USPS income peaked in 2008 at $74.9 billion and then declined to $65.2 billion last year . But the big problem was that expenses last year were $80.9 billion. While much of that $15 billion loss stemmed from the requirement that the USPS put aside money to cover future pension liabilities, it would still be losing money in any case.

The service’s favored status is actually what makes it unsustainable. It has a monopoly over delivery of first- and third-class mail, and over physical mailboxes.

ABOUT EDWARD HUDGINS
Ed has written two books on postal service privatization. He is the formerly director of regulatory studies for the Cato Institute and editor of Regulation magazine, is an expert on the regulation of space and transportation, pharmaceuticals, and labor. He served as a senior economist for the Joint Economic Committee of the U.S. Congress and was both deputy director for economic policy studies and director of the Center for International Economic Growth at the Heritage Foundation. He has testified on many occasions before Congress.

Ed's opinion writing has been published in the Wall Street Journal, Houston Chronicle, USA Today, Philadelphia Inquirer, Journal of Commerce, Aviation Week & Space Technology, among other publications.

Read the Reuters OpEd now

Also see:  Hudgins discusses USPS woes on NY radio
                Hudgins article on USPS published in Investor's Business Daily

To publish work by Atlas Society staff members or to book them for radio, web, or TV, email us at AtlasU@atlassociety.org

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