Royal Mail - sleight of hand?
Robert Peston reports the government's "sleight of hand" in separating the Royal Mail's assets and liabilities in order to sell it off. Well, there's some argument there. But perhaps this is the only way the organisation can be saved. There are two reasons this might be a good policy: A thriving, efficient and well-managed Royal Mail provides a boost to the economy. It's a key part of our infrastructure and, when it works properly, it helps to speed up projects and increase GDP. When it doesn't, it interferes with business activities (and those of consumers), creates risk and delay, and gives people excuses for not delivering their side of an agreement. In short it creates friction in the economy, which destroys economic activity with no corresponding gain (a negative-sum game). If this separation is a necessary step toward privatising the organisation, we will all gain from it. The pensions are likely to be more efficiently handled as part of a larger pu...