George Will is a Pulitzer Prize-winning political commentator who has penned some of the most beautiful prose ever written about baseball. But yesterday, in opining about the U.S. Postal Service, he whiffed when it came to basic fact checking.
After a fascinating history lesson about how Sunday mail delivery was discontinued a century ago, Will threw this clunker into his commentary for the The Washington Post:
"Surely the government could cede this function to the private sector, which probably could have a satisfactory substitute system functioning quicker than you can say 'FedEx,' 'UPS' and 'Wal-Mart.' The first two are good at delivering things; the third, supplemented by other ubiquitous retailers, could house post offices."
Question for Mr. Will: When was the last time you sent or received anything via FedEx or UPS that cost only 34 cents? Or even anywhere close to 34 cents? The average price USPS charged last fiscal year for First Class and other monopoly classes of mail was 34.1 cents.
More questions: When was the last time FedEx or UPS begged for the chance to take over the Postal Service's business? When was the last time you heard an executive from one of those companies say, "Gee, we'd really like to deliver mail to every address in the country, regardless of profitability and without price discrimination; we can't wait to drive snowmobiles in Alaska and to take mule trains into the Grand Canyon so that we can complete our appointed rounds"?
Yes, FedEx and UPS are "good at delivering things." So are moving companies and obstetricians. But none are set up to do what the Postal Service does on the scale that the Postal Service does it.
Both FedEx and UPS are happy to serve businesses five days a week (or to charge premiums for weekend delivery). But going to private homes is another matter. Their favorite method of getting low-value shipments to residences is to pay the Postal Service for making the actual deliveries.
Perhaps privatization of some or all U.S. postal services makes can or should lie in the future. But it won't simply be a matter of turning over mail delivery to the private sector, especially when no one in the private sector seems to be clamoring to take over the U.S. Postal Service and all the requirements and restrictions imposed on it.
Saturday, November 26, 2011
OK, Johnny, Now Greenwash Your Hands
One of the "joys" of traveling long distances on a busy holiday weekend is seeing how highway rest stops try to greenwash their way out of providing paper towels.
Shown here are two examples of hand dryers from my recent travels. The second one, in case you have trouble reading it, says "Save trees, eliminate paper towel waste, and maintain cleaner facilities with World Warm-Air Dryers."
Part of Dead Tree Edition's plan for reviving the paper industry is handing out little stickers saying "Wipe hands on pants". They could be placed under the hand dryer's instructions, right below "Rub hands vigorously under dryer."
Or how about one reading "This dryer powered by coal-fired electricity"?
Somehow, I don't think the state highway department (no, I'm not telling you which one) did a thorough environmental analysis before approving the message on the first example above: "We encourage the use of our high efficiency electric hand dryers as alternatives to disposable paper towels. By doing so, we reduce our carbon footprint and our impact on landfill capacity."
I'm not saying paper towels are more environmentally friendly than electric dryers. But I object to simplistic assumptions that all substitutes for paper are greener than using paper. (Dead Tree Edition has addressed this issue in such previous articles as Google Using Blatant Greenwash To Promote New Catalog App and Smackdown: Printed Editions vs. Digital Editions.)
Whether using an electric dryer has a lower carbon footprint and less impact on forests and landfills than paper towels depends greatly on a variety of variables, such as:
- The energy sources of the dryer's electricity and of the paper mill. (In North America, coal is the most likely source of the dryer's electricity, while relatively benign energy sources like hydroelectric are fairly common at paper mills.)
- The forestry practices used to obtain the towels' virgin fiber.
- The proportion of recycled content in the paper towels.
- The amount of deforestation caused by obtaining fuel for those power sources, such as via mountaintop removal for coal mining.
- The energy efficiency of the hand dryer and the paper mill.
- The proportion of people using hand dryers who end up saying, "Screw it" and finish drying their hands with toilet paper.
- The carbon footprint of the bathroom's TP.
- The disposal methods used for the bathroom's waste -- and the power plants' fly ash.
Home Solar Power Discounts - One Block Off the Grid
Monday, November 21, 2011
Are Quad/Graphics and Barnes & Noble Really on the Ropes?
Not again!
Those of us in the ink-on-paper side of the publishing world have become accustomed to our vendors and sellers going through bankruptcy reorganization. But seeing Quad/Graphics and Barnes & Noble listed recently by Business Insider among The Next 11 Big Companies That Could Go Bankrupt was a bit of a jolt.
When a big printer (Quebecor World) went Chapter 11 in 2008, it was no big surprise. Nor was the demise earlier this year of the big Borders bookstore chain. One was burdened by out-of-date plants, the other by an out-of-date business plan.
But Quad and B&N are supposed to be the strong survivors who benefit from the demise of their less nimble and innovative competitors.
BI’s list is based on research from GovernanceMetrics International that identifies companies with “an elevated financial distress probability and which have experienced high risk events that increase the likelihood of bankruptcy."
B&N is #5 on the list, with a "financial distress probability" of 6.32% and what BI calls a business model that is “only slightly more viable” than Borders’. Amazon’s new Kindle Fire and low-price black-and-white Kindles will “put pressure” on Borders and its competing Nook e-readers, BI says.
Quad is ranked #6, with a 6.25% probability of distress (during what period of time? BI doesn’t say.) It noted the big printer’s high debt and tight profit margins. BI also cited a recent analysis from The Street showing that Quad had a “quick ratio” (current assets to current liabilities) of only 0.77, which suggests questionable ability to cover its short-term cash needs.
A profile of Quad in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel over the weekend pointed out that Quad has “lowered its full-year earnings outlook for the third time in as many quarters.” Also spooking Wall Street are declining sales in the book division, which represents only 7% of the company’s revenue, according to JS reporter John Schmid.
Seeing the stock lose more than two-thirds of its value in barely a year hasn’t helped either.
Other articles about Quad and B&N include:
Those of us in the ink-on-paper side of the publishing world have become accustomed to our vendors and sellers going through bankruptcy reorganization. But seeing Quad/Graphics and Barnes & Noble listed recently by Business Insider among The Next 11 Big Companies That Could Go Bankrupt was a bit of a jolt.
When a big printer (Quebecor World) went Chapter 11 in 2008, it was no big surprise. Nor was the demise earlier this year of the big Borders bookstore chain. One was burdened by out-of-date plants, the other by an out-of-date business plan.
But Quad and B&N are supposed to be the strong survivors who benefit from the demise of their less nimble and innovative competitors.
BI’s list is based on research from GovernanceMetrics International that identifies companies with “an elevated financial distress probability and which have experienced high risk events that increase the likelihood of bankruptcy."
B&N is #5 on the list, with a "financial distress probability" of 6.32% and what BI calls a business model that is “only slightly more viable” than Borders’. Amazon’s new Kindle Fire and low-price black-and-white Kindles will “put pressure” on Borders and its competing Nook e-readers, BI says.
Quad is ranked #6, with a 6.25% probability of distress (during what period of time? BI doesn’t say.) It noted the big printer’s high debt and tight profit margins. BI also cited a recent analysis from The Street showing that Quad had a “quick ratio” (current assets to current liabilities) of only 0.77, which suggests questionable ability to cover its short-term cash needs.
A profile of Quad in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel over the weekend pointed out that Quad has “lowered its full-year earnings outlook for the third time in as many quarters.” Also spooking Wall Street are declining sales in the book division, which represents only 7% of the company’s revenue, according to JS reporter John Schmid.
Seeing the stock lose more than two-thirds of its value in barely a year hasn’t helped either.
Other articles about Quad and B&N include:
Saturday, November 19, 2011
Could Forever Stamps Become Worthless? What Bankruptcy Might Mean for USPS
With news reports of the U.S. Postal Service talking to restructuring advisors and being close to bankruptcy, it’s time to ask what might seem like a silly question: Are Forever Stamps really forever?
In the past two weeks, Reuters described USPS as “on the brink of bankruptcy”, the Associated Press explored what happens “in the event of a shutdown”, and the San Francisco Chronicle says postal executives are meeting with corporate “restructuring” (AKA bankruptcy) advisors.
Canceling the $2.5 billion worth of unredeemed Forever Stamps held by tens of millions of Americans is a political non-starter. The same goes for the couple of billion dollars worth of other USPS liabilities held by postal customers, such as money orders, non-Forever Stamps, and box rent.
The Postal Service would never propose walking away from those obligations, and Congress would never approve it.
But they might not be given the choice.
When a private business goes through bankruptcy reorganization, it cedes to the court control over which liabilities get paid. Unsecured creditors (like owners of Forever Stamps) are in line behind secured creditors and often end up with nothing, as you might know if you’ve ever owned a gift card for a retailer that went Chapter 11.
No one has spelled out what a “bankruptcy” or “reorganization” would mean for the Postal Service, though clearly there are thoughts in some quarters about how to void the Postal Service's labor contracts and selected financial obligations.
The point is that, whether liberal or conservative, you should be wary of any effort to present bankruptcy court as the answer to the Postal Service’s mounting debts and financial losses.
In the past two weeks, Reuters described USPS as “on the brink of bankruptcy”, the Associated Press explored what happens “in the event of a shutdown”, and the San Francisco Chronicle says postal executives are meeting with corporate “restructuring” (AKA bankruptcy) advisors.
Canceling the $2.5 billion worth of unredeemed Forever Stamps held by tens of millions of Americans is a political non-starter. The same goes for the couple of billion dollars worth of other USPS liabilities held by postal customers, such as money orders, non-Forever Stamps, and box rent.
The Postal Service would never propose walking away from those obligations, and Congress would never approve it.
But they might not be given the choice.
When a private business goes through bankruptcy reorganization, it cedes to the court control over which liabilities get paid. Unsecured creditors (like owners of Forever Stamps) are in line behind secured creditors and often end up with nothing, as you might know if you’ve ever owned a gift card for a retailer that went Chapter 11.
No one has spelled out what a “bankruptcy” or “reorganization” would mean for the Postal Service, though clearly there are thoughts in some quarters about how to void the Postal Service's labor contracts and selected financial obligations.
The point is that, whether liberal or conservative, you should be wary of any effort to present bankruptcy court as the answer to the Postal Service’s mounting debts and financial losses.
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