Report addresses how does USPS provide universal mail delivery service and access to postal services in both rural and urban areas; what are the changes USPS is making and planning to make related to providing postal services, including changes that may affect rural areas; and what are the major issues that have been raised related to how USPS provides postal services?

This book analyzes why the Postal Service needs to be privatized if mail delivery is to be an efficient component of rather than a corroded cog in the communications and information economy. The first section examines the state of the USPS, including its dangerous forays into cyberspace. The second section considers the changing structure of the mail market, including a look at labor problems, fatal flaws with the organization of the USPS, and the probable consequences of competition. The third section explores how to unwind government monopolies and reviews postal reforms in other countries. The fourth section offers actual reform and privatization proposals. Essays by Postmaster General William Henderson, Federal Express founder Frederick Smith, and Pitney Bowes CEO Michael Critelli contribute to making this volume an indispensable guide for charting the future of mail in the new millennium.

The Private Express Statutes protect the U.S. Postal Service from competition in the delivery of letter mail. In contrast, few if any corresponding rules protect competition in other areas from the federal government's postal monopoly. Not only are the Postal Service's competitive activities arguably unrestricted by any explicit application of antitrust law, but public ownership and control exempt the Postal Service's actions from the corporate governance that is characteristic of private enterprises. The Postal Service can take advantage of its autonomy and protected letter mail monopoly to subsidize its entry and expansion in competitive markets, such as parcel post and express mail. That raises a fundamental issue: whether Congress's grant of a monopoly to the Postal Service over the delivery of letter mail should be used to restrict or supplant private commerce in other markets. In this book J. Gregory Sidak and Daniel F. Spulber examine the justifications for the publicly protected postal monopoly and its public ownership and control. On the basis of their economic and legal analysis, the authors demonstrate the need to prevent extension of the postal monopoly into competitive markets.

The federal government is running huge budget deficits, spending too much, and heading toward a financial crisis. Federal spending soared under President George W. Bush, and the costs of programs for the elderly are set to balloon in coming years. Hurricane Katrina has made the federal budget situation even more desperate. In Downsizing the Federal Government Cato Institute budget expert Chris Edwards provides policymakers with solutions to the growing federal budget mess. Edwards identifies more than 100 federal programs that should be terminated, transferred to the states, or privatized in order to balance the budget and save hundreds of billions of dollars. Edwards proposes a balanced reform package of cuts to entitlements, domestic programs, and excess defense spending. He argues that these cuts would not only eliminate the deficit, but also strengthen the economy, enlarge personal freedom, and leave a positive fiscal legacy for the next generation. Downsizing the Federal Government discusses the systematic causes of wasteful spending, and it overflows with examples of federal programs that are obsolete and mismanaged. The book examines the budget process and shows how policymakers act contrary to the interests of average Americans by favoring special interests.