Wall Street Licks Its Lips at Prospect of Selling Off Public Post Office

Just over one month into the new administration, Wall Street speculators are already excited at the prospect of extracting massive profits from a sell-off of our public Postal Service and raising shipping costs for the public.

President Trump has expressed support for privatization and is reported to be actively planning a direct takeover of the Post Office by Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnik, former chairman and CEO of Wall Street bank, Cantor Fitzgerald.

Despite the critical role that the Postal Service plays, Wall Street privatizers have been chomping at the bit to tear up this national treasurer and put its profit in their own pockets.

Wall Street Circulates Document Detailing Potential Profit from Postal Privatization 

Read the whole report here.

In a document circulated within the banking industry, Wells Fargo equity analysts argue that postal privatization could be a huge money-maker for investors. They advise the administration to sell off the most profitable parts of the service – primarily packages and parcels, while putting taxpayers on the hook for the rest.

They stated that privatizing could be a huge money-maker for investors, calling the Postal Service “an obvious source of value.” The Postal Service generates nearly $80 billion in revenue each year. That is $80 billion in the public domain that Wall Street investors can’t get their hands on.

Wells Fargo suggests that the Postal Service should sell off the most profitable parts of its service – primarily packages and parcels, and put taxpayers, who currently don’t pay a dime, on the hook for the rest – stating that if they were in control, “Parcel could be carved out and sold or IPO'ed” to Wall Street investors.

The report suggests they would raise prices by as much as 140 percent, claiming “…we believe raising prices would be likely, which would be positive for [USPS competitors] FedEx and UPS. In order to stand alone and earn a reasonable return we estimate USPS would need to raise prices by [about] 30-140 percent across its product lines.”

They also want to sell-off, lease, or otherwise monetize our community Post Offices, which occupy prime real estate locations. “Unlocking [about] $85b of Real Estate Can Underpin the [privatization] Process,” exclaims the report, outlining a postal real estate portfolio that includes around 7,200 “smaller post office facilities” and 20,700 acres of land.”

“We believe value can be harvested to help underpin the financial burden of separation,” write the authors. It would mean that six-day delivery would be shifted to a mail-only service that is either subsidized by taxpayers or paid for by cashing in on local Post Offices.

Postal Workers, Our Community are Wall Street's Biggest Threat

However, the report also suggests that Wall Street fears our power and influence to stop them in their tracks. “Public, private, labor, and federal support of the USPS remains high,” the authors admit before recognizing that rural communities “have a particularly strong affinity for the USPS,” and that many critical services are moved through the mail, including election ballots, medicine, taxes, bill payments, government distributions, and much more.

The report also recognizes that the USPS is authorized as an independent agency by Congress, has high bipartisan support, and is overseen by the Postmaster General and the Postal Board of Governors.

So, Congress should not stand by as the billionaires and corporate-bought politicians openly plan to privatize our public Postal Service. The APWU encourages you to call, write, and email your congressional representatives and urge them to defend our public Postal Service and to say to the Wall Street privatizers, “Hands off our public Postal Service – The U.S. Mail is Not for Sale!”

Read the whole report here.