Why the USPS is running out of money.

I thought that the USPS was in financial trouble because they’d over-promised pensions. Nope. It turns out that a law passed by Congress in 2006 requires the USPS to save up enough money to pay 100% of their pension obligations for the next 75 years by 2016. That’s unheard of. So why require that? To …

The truth behind auto worker pay claims.

I haven’t known what to make of conflicting claims about how much union auto workers are paid, so I was glad to see David Leonhardt’s explanation of what auto workers really make in yesterday’s New York Times. I keep seeing claims that they make $73/hour, and that just seems impossible. In a nutshell, it is. …