The USPS is quickly approaching insolvency and is planning to shed more than one-third of its workforce by 2015. Annie Lowrey discusses a wide range of policy options: 

The most radical option is simply to end the USPS, as suggested by former Republican presidential candidate Tim Pawlenty and the Cato Institute, among others. This is unnecessary and unlikely. But it is not nearly as crazy as it sounds. The shift to online communication is permanent, and letter volumes will continue to decline. It is hard to see how the USPS will ever make money given its legal strictures, even with its monopoly on letter delivery. Congress could break the monopoly and privatize USPS, opening the field up to the host of companies that already deliver packages and letters, cheaply and fast.

As another possible solution, Brad Plumer appraises the Postal Service's real estate assets. Noting that the federal government needs to decide if the USPS is a "business or welfare/charity organization," Maurice McTigue adds: