Quote:
Originally Posted by Leon
I would take the bottom line of Fedex or UPS over the bottom line of the USPS.
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Neither of them are required to fully fund their pension plans and retiree health benefits up front. That would change their bottom line a bit.
http://about.usps.com/who-we-are/fin...2010_4_002.htm
Of course, the upside is that the prefunding is putting a decent dent in their unfunded liabilities, which we'd end up paying for in the long run anyway, especially if they failed.
It's all pretty complex.
Some postal administrations have demonetized their stamps rather than carry them on the books as liabilities. (They're essentially receipts for a service that can be used to pay for that service at some future date. So many of them know the total dollar value of the ones that haven't been used. ) The USPS has only demonetized or disallowed a few stamps. For the regular issue stuff, everything issued after 1861 can still be used as postage. Some but not all of the stamps for particular services can still be used.
Steve B