thependulumswings

Every time the sky is falling our trusty government steps in to help.   It means well we assume.   But, we should expect so much more.  Shouldn’t we?

After 9/11 we got an entirely new department.  The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) was born.  And nearly 20 years later we have tables that look like they were purchased at Walmart that have tubs that look like they were purchased at Walmart lined up to take an image of our belongings.  We have see-through machines that can see through our clothing as well.  And we have TSA employees that would struggle to be hired at Walmart telling us what to do.

Every time they run a security test on their own various screening methods they fail miserably.  Do you feel safer?  Isn’t there a better way?

After the financial crisis, driven largely by dicey mortgage loans packaged as investments, we got the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act.  Dodd-Frank reorganized the financial regulatory system, eliminating the Office of Thrift Supervision, assigning new responsibilities to existing agencies like the FDIC, and creating new agencies like the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB). The CFPB was charged with protecting consumers against abuses related to credit cards, mortgages, and other financial products. The act also created the Financial Stability Oversight Council and the Office of Financial Research to identify threats to the financial stability of the U.S., and gave the Federal Reserve new powers to regulate systemically important institutions.  Did you get all of that?

The interest rates on credit cards remain 18% plus ten years later.  How is that for protecting consumers against abuses?  Apply for a mortgage and you’ll see at least three times the paperwork to get to the same spot.  You sign and you owe.  You owe and the bank collects.  You default and they take your house.

Now here comes the enemy that we cannot see.  And here comes the United States Postal Service(USPS) with their left hand on the mail and their right hand out.  USPS has lost $69 billion over the past 11 fiscal years. USPS’s total unfunded liabilities and debt ($143 billion at the end of the fiscal year 2018) have grown to double its annual revenue.

“The Postal Service is in need of urgent help as a direct result of the coronavirus crisis. Based on a number of briefings and warnings this week about a critical fall-off in the mail across the country, it has become clear that the Postal Service will not survive the summer without immediate help from Congress and the White House,” House Oversight and Reform Committee Chair Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.) said.

So, what happened?  Trump threatened to veto the CARES Act if it included USPS bailout money.  Instead, the government granted them a $10 billion loan.  Nevermind that the USPS has failed on numerous occasions in the last several years to repay a nickel of it’s current $13 billion U.S. government loan.

So should we expect so much more from the government?  Or in this instance should we expect so much less?  The virus is only yet another symptom of the illness that plagues the post office.  Al Gore’s internet created multiple avenues to reach consumers that used to get the solicitations in the mail.  Magazines, catalogs, and newspapers are more virtual than printed.  Bills?  Try online banking, please.  What’s left that Amazon Prime, FedEx, UPS, or countless other delivery services can’t handle?

At a minimum can the USPS deliver three times a week vs. the current six?  If your “revenues” are cut in half why not cut your expenses in half? If your mail comes to a box versus to your house, how often do you go get it anyway?

Why not?  If the government continues to bail out a very tired business model is “why not.”

Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds.”  Nor a lack of government funding.

Just this one time, when the sky is falling, could we do better by doing less?