Smith Faculty Opinion Article February 24, 2006

"U.S. Announces Sale of Postal Service to Libyan Firm"
 By Dr. Peter Morici, Professor of International Business

Secretary John Snow surprised equity markets today by announcing that United States Postal Post Service would be privatized. The new firm will be owned and operated by Tripoli Security and Logistics Services, a Libyan state corporation.

The sale was approved by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States late Thursday evening after an exhaustive 35 minute review.

According to Treasury Secretary John Snow, "we have received full assurances from TSLS that present management will be kept in place. All new employees will be screened by both appropriate U.S. agencies and the Libyan Ministry of State Security, and we know how thorough those guys are."

After receiving a firm commitment that no effort would be made to off shore back office work, the U.S. Postal Service gave its enthusiastic ok. That deal was brokered by Madeline Albright, whose consulting firm was brought on board to win over organized labor and skeptical Democrats on the Capital Hill.

Snow was asked whether he was involved directly in the review. He assured reporters, "you bet, After the Dubai Ports World mess up, I made sure I was in the thick of this one. It was top level all the way. We even got 20 minutes of the Chiefs time. Condi was in Beijing but she attended via meeting software from our embassy. Donald even brought two of his generals"

Rumors have been floating that party officials in China might have been eavesdropping on Secretary of State Rice but Snow deflected when questioned, "The Chinese suggested this deal. They have been urging us to do something about our budget deficit if they are going to keep making exemplary progress on revaluing the yuan."

TSLS will pay $200 billion for the USPS assets and a two cent royalty on each first class stamp. Summarizing the new administration policy Snow said, "We just have to be more open minded and flexible if we want to sell to the world what we have to balance our accounts."

Shortly after the postal deal was announced, China revalued the yuan from 8.04988 per dollar to 8.03773. Its Minister of Finance stated, "More big changes are planned."

According to sources close to Secretary Rumsfeld, the Defense Department is actively considering outsourcing Military Police operations to Singapore Security Associates. Founded by a group of retired correctional officers, it is partially owned by the government of Singapore.

According to U.S. Trade Representative Rob Portman, "Its a win-win. TSLS has agreed not to reproduce images on U.S. Postal stamps, issued prior to July 1 2006, without negotiating a licensing fee with U.S. Patent Office. No one gets to use George Washington's portrait without paying."

Portman went on, "We are always going to insist on controlling our intellectual property."

Peter Morici is an economist and professor at the Robert H. Smith School of Business, the University of Maryland, College Park, MD.
E-mail: pmorici@rhsmith.umd.edu