[You know, today I’m finding a lot of stuff in the news I read during lunch…]
The Federal Times is reporting that the U.S. Postal Service Board of Governors decided May 3 to ask for increases averaging 8.5% as early as next May. Postage for first-class letters, which increased by 2c to 39c in January, would go up to 42c next year. Other changes would include raising the rate for a postcard from 24c to 27c; and for a two-ounce flat, or large envelope, from 63c to 82c. The new scheme includes numerous incentives in the form of price reductions to get bulk mailers to send smaller or flatter letters and packages, drop their bulk mail off at distribution centers and improve the quality of addresses by, for example, using bar codes. They are also trying to encourage mailers to use the smallest package possible, for under the current scheme, package mail was priced mostly according to weight, not according to the size of the package; this led some mailers to use oversized packages to ship small items. If the new rate proposal goes into effect, the Postal Service then hopes to introduce more modest postage rate increases annually.
And as for interest rates: I was reminded while in Quicken yesterday of the old days… when I was pleased to get a 9.75% 30-year fixed on my old house, moving away from a variable based on the LIBOR. This was in 1991, folks. Makes the current rates look damn good.
Of course, the things that I wish would rise never do. Hemlines. My paycheck 🙂
