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I know, that was a different argument, I might have mixed it in. Let's say you are a company relying on mass mailing. Your cost of shipping just went up 10 fold.... And NFLX can forget about mailing DVDs....
Can you help answer these questions from other members on NexusFi?
Platform: "I trade, therefore, I AM!"; Theme Song: "Atomic Dog!"
Trading: EMD, 6J, ZB
Posts: 795 since Oct 2009
what's so amazing is those other competing services (FedEx, UPS, DHL, etc.) often down ship through the USPS, on probably high volume, pre-contracted, non-retail (read. heavily discounted) rates for their tracking delivery services.
ever opt for "free deliver" on ohh so many of those online websites?, many of them defer to the USPS as being cheaper than the premium services of the next-day specialists...
The shuttingdown of US official government still have effect to all market makers..
It also affecting the companies in america. I think that it will remain same until the US clearly solve their financial problems..
Amid a rise in popularity of cryptocurrency, the financially floundering US Postal Service is considering the possibility of adding a bitcoin exchange to its current roster of non-bank financial services.
The USPS Office of Inspector General (OIG) led a webinar last week on bitcoin and other digital currencies to “explore the possibilities” of setting up bitcoin and other digital-currency exchanges at post offices as a means of boosting revenue. The event included representatives of the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, Booz Allen Hamilton, and the World Bank, among others, MainStreet reported.
The OIG also discussed the possibility of creating a “postcoin” as a USPS-specific digital currency.
“There were suggestions like if someone made 'postcoin,' 'What would that be?' 'How could that help?' If we were to employ the technology to support post office operations around the world, internationally, how could crypto currency help post offices do their business?" Darrell Duane, a bitcoin consultant who was involved in the webinar, told online digital currency site CoinDesk.
In addition to the webinar, the USPS OIG released a report covering the possible benefits of providing other non-bank financial services, including replenishable prepaid debit cards, savings accounts, and payday loans.
"The Postal Service already provides non-bank financial services like money orders and international money transfers, and many American families could benefit if the Postal Service expanded its offerings," the OIG said in a statement.
Should the USPS decide on entering the cryptocurrency world, it has a built-in advantage considering it is already licensed to provide related services, like money transmitting.
"Around the world, financial services are the single biggest driver for new revenue for postal operators, and the conditions may be ripe for similar success for the U.S. Postal Service," the USPS OIG said. "If just 10% of the money underserved Americans currently spend on alternative financial services were instead spent on more affordable products from the Postal Service, it could generate some $8.9 billion in new revenue."
The search for alternate revenue streams for USPS in an era of relative austerity in the US comes as its core business has conceded much ground to internet based communications. The majority of bills are now paid online, and letter writing has gone down by 25 percent since 2010. The USPS costs the federal government $15.9 billion a year to operate.
Just one day prior to the USPS webinar, New York State’s top banking regulator announced plans to create regulations that will guide virtual currency firms that operate in the state, possibly requiring them to hold a “BitLicense.”
Benjamin Lawsky, New York’s Superintendent of Financial Services, said such regulatory guidelines would seek to bar misconduct like money laundering while not cornering in booming cryptocurrency technology. His comments came during the start of hearings this week - organized by the New York Department of Financial Services - on the future of online currencies.
“Ultimately, it’s our expectation that the information we’ve gathered in this fact-finding effort will allow us to put forward, during the course of 2014, a proposed regulatory framework for virtual currency firms operating in New York,” Lawsky said in his statement, according to MarketWatch.
The United States Postal Service has a serious dilemma: How can it survive in the age of email, online banking and a very competitive shipping industry?
The Post Office recently raised the price of a first-class stamp to $0.49 from $0.46 but three extra pennies to send a letter in the mail will have little effect on helping the agency turn a profit. The postal service trimmed its loses in the first quarter of its fiscal year yet the agency still posted a $354 million loss. Total mail volume in the quarter, which ended Dec. 31, fell to 42 billion pieces, down from 43.5 billion in the same period a year ago. The Post Office has lost money in 19 of the last 21 quarters.
Money-saving strategies like ending Saturday mail delivery was rejected by Congress; other major financial decisions that the USPS wants to make are tied to a dysfunctional federal government that cannot agree on much these days.
How about this: allowing the Postal Service, which has branches in many low-income neighborhoods, to offer traditional and non-traditional banking services? That was the recommendation of the U.S. Postal Service Inspector General, who outlined such a proposal in a recent white paper.
"The Postal Service is well positioned to provide non-bank financial services to those whose needs are not being met by the traditional financial sector," according to the report. "It could accomplish this largely by partnering with banks, who also could lend expertise a the Postal Service structures new offerings. The Office of Inspector General is not suggesting that the Postal Service become a bank or openly compete with banks. To the contrary, we are suggesting that the Postal Service could greatly complement banks’ offerings. The Postal Service could help financial institutions fill the gaps in their efforts to reach the underserved."
More than a quarter of U.S. households -- about 68 million adults -- spent $89 billion in 2012 to access costly services like payday loans and check cashing exchanges because they did not have a bank account, the General Inspector noted in his proposal.
"While banks are closing branches all over the country, mostly in low- income areas like rural communities and inner cities, the physical postal network is ubiquitous," the Inspector General writes. "The Postal Service also is among the most trusted companies in America, and trust is a critical element for implementing financial services. With affordable financial offerings from the Postal Service, the underserved could collectively save billions of dollars in exorbitant fees and interest."
"I want this idea to work so much," so Yahoo Finance's Jeff Macke in the video above. "But it won't work because it's a high-risk business. The Post Office won't make money."
The Inspector General estimates that moving into the banking business could net the Post Office nearly $9 billion a year. But there's "a certain irony in the Post Office, cash-strapped and maxed out on credit, looking to elbow in on the business of check-cashing and payday-loan storefronts," Mehrsa Baradaran, an assistant professor of law at the University of Georgia, specializing in banking regulation, argues in a recent NYT editorial. "A note of alarm is raised when it highlights the potential bonanza that providing financial services to the financially underserved could yield."