Nippon Steel Should Be Able To Purchase U.S. Steel, 2024 Politics Should Not Prevent Venture

What would the headlines read of the desire by Nippon Steel to purchase U.S. Steel if this were not an election year and the all-important state of Pennsylvania were not in play or the all-prized votes of union members not so highly sought?  What if I could give a pink pony to a kid on their birthday?  The fact is, we are about eight months away from the 2024 presidential election and political considerations are heavily factoring how policy is channeled into messages that resonate for various constituencies.  That is why the Biden White House is acting in opposition to a potential foreign investment by placing a thumb on what should be a market-driven decision. One that I need not say, is wished to be made by an ally.

The differences between the two sides can be measured with two quick paragraphs.  The first is from a press release by Nippon Steel and the second is from a statement by the White House.

“Through increased financial investment and the contribution of our advanced technologies to U.S. Steel, Nippon Steel will advance American priorities by driving greater quality and competitiveness for customers in the critical industries that rely on American steel while strengthening American supply chains and economic defenses against China,” it added.

Biden said it is “important that we maintain strong American steel companies powered by American steelworkers.” 

Nippon is correct to place China at the center of this issue. If this international transaction were to conclude not only would U.S. Steel retain its brand and Pittsburgh would remain the headquarters, but the company would bounce up and become the world’s second-largest steel manufacturer. Or should I write the second-largest in the free world? China’s state-owned Baowu Group is a steel company that makes more than half the steel used around the world and that fact is very much a national security and economic factor that makes this proposed sale too important to be left as a campaign toy in 2024.

Today, there are about 15,000 U.S. Steel employees. Updated technology in the industry and more investments in the larger communities will make their lives better, both in the workplace and outside of it in ways that matter to the local tax base. While there is still resentment in the national psyche that our nation’s foundational industries need an injection of international money and updated ideas, that is, in part, due to our political leaders from both parties not having an adult conversation with the electorate about economics and the world in which we live.

In 2006, one of those politicians who did speak out with refreshing honesty about this larger issue was someone I had serious misgivings over as a presidential candidate and who I rode hard when it came to his Iraq policy. Needless wars are never a good idea. But President George Bush was correct when endorsing the takeover of shipping operations at six of our major U.S. seaports by a state-owned business in the United Arab Emirates. On this issue, I publicly and energetically supported Bush as the policy was correct. These hyper-politicians have whipped up mass hysteria in the country in a way that I have not seen for many years. Do keep in mind that this public outcry comes from an electorate that, until a few days ago, did not even realize that over 30% of our ports are already operated by foreign companies. 

International connections and inter-related business dealings signify economic vibrancy, mutual trust, and a growing maturity between nations. As such, Bush pledged to veto any bill Congress might approve to block the agreement. There was a massive political storm over approving the sale of London-based Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Co. to Dubai Ports World. Then the pols made headlines with their fears about terrorism at American ports. Today we deal with strident nationalism and populist chants by unskilled workers about investments from places like Japan.

I understand it means nothing to argue in steel towns that China used heft and hegemony for political purposes and rouge policies, while Japan has operated in the exact opposite direction since the end of WWII. It is hard to push the fact this is far more than a business deal. This a prudent move by a stalwart ally of the United States who finds their larger neighborhood becoming more of a zone for international tension and potential supply line encroachments. There is no doubt U.S. Steel is flagging as a company and this strong investment and updating will provide for a more powerful economic outcome for all.

Postal Service Woes, Trump Appointee DeJoy Is DeTrouble

I was talking on the phone with a woman about the massive winter storm that was blasting through Wisconsin. As we described the conditions out our respective windows I asked if she had picked her mail up yet, thinking that blowing snow might seep into her mailbox out on the street. “Oh, my mail does not come until 6:30 in the evening”, she stated with a tone of being irked. Her dismay with the postal service was but the latest interaction I have had with others who feel let down concerning their mail delivery.

A reader of this blog from the east side of Madison alerted me recently via email to his plight about the postal system. “We go days without regular mail.  And, we have days when outgoing mail is not picked up.  I tried to call the post office, the best that I can do is get voice mail.  I have also written.  And, I get no response back.“ The person lamented the fact that the U.S. Postal Service has deteriorated quickly under the ‘leadership’ of Postmaster General Louis DeJoy. It is not hard to fathom why problems with this basic service, one that is so integrated with house and home, be it for paying bills, getting updates from relatives with a letter, receiving the latest news magazine, finding birthday greetings, or better still a postcard from a friend who made it to yet another presidential library (yes, I have such a person in my life) has become a real ongoing concern for citizens.

When it comes to the source of why there is a growing problem the Eastside resident summed it up succinctly, by looking both backward and forward. Trump appointee DeJoy is a failure.  He is running the post office into the ground.  Mr. President, on day one, you should have been working to get a new Postmaster General in place!” His words hit the mark, and while it surely is a small consolation, there are folks all over the nation echoing them. This week NPR reported that Minnesota residents are voicing strong disapproval of their mail delivery and the rebuke of the postal system is so strong that the inspector general of the service has launched an investigation into the reasons the Land of 10,000 Lakes has poor service.

The epicenter of the problem be it locally or in any state you think of rests with DeJoy, a Donald Trump appointee who was also a wealthy mega-donor with a dark desire for privatization of the mail system. He started his tenure with a partisan slap to our sensibilities when an attempt was made during the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic to neuter the casting of ballots via the mail. Let us recall that a federal judge found that DeJoy’s ideas and changes with the postal service before the 2020 election were harmful to mail delivery. Now, there is more evidence to correctly blame him for a poorly designed or thought-out 10-year “Delivering for America” plan which centers around contracting with Amazon and other online retailers to deliver packages, (those had previously been handled by UPS) closing post offices, and realigning and closing mail sorting centers. Add in the same economic issue that has impacted businesses nationwide, a shortage of employees, and one can start to glimpse why more packages being delivered with one hand undercuts the prompt delivery of an electrical bill or letter from Uncle Glen on the other hand. 

The requirement that employees needed to deliver Amazon boxes along with their regular paper mail was the reason a man in our neighborhood left his postal carrier job. The work duties had expanded along with the frustration and the knowledge that to do it all would require a much faster-paced delivery day…six days a week. It is not a wonder that a worker shortage exists within the postal service. It was reported on the radio that the background check system for those seeking employment within the postal service is cumbersome and takes so long that some workers have located another job where a paycheck can start appearing in their bank account much sooner.

It has been a continual vexing question as to why the Biden Administration has not been pressing for new appointments to the USPS board which has nine presidentially-appointed governors who serve seven-year terms. Those governors select a postmaster general, and though the majority of the governors are jolly over DeJoy, there were two openings late last year. The Biden Administration did not put forth any replacement names. That is more than a political quandary to be deciphered by talking heads on television, but a real lack of tackling a serious problem that is brewing and getting more troubling for a greater amount of citizens. What I have posted here is not just the views of a liberal Democratic blogger from the Madison isthmus, but rather the views also in part align with Republican lawmaker, Rep. Bill Huizenga who represents constituents in Michigan. He stated DeJoy’s plans lacked transparency and would have negative impacts on the folks he talks with and works for.

The changes, which USPS has slowly rolled out in recent months and will accelerate later this year and in early 2024, will mean letter carriers no longer go to their local facility to pick up mail for their route, instead traveling farther distances after starting at a consolidated location. The impacted post offices will still conduct their retail operations, but a lot of the back-end functions will be stripped away and relocated.

“This one-size-fits-all proposal originating from your ‘Delivering for America’ plan is likely to negatively impact the constituents I represent with a decline in the quality of service,” Huizenga said in his letter. He added the changes would cause the workforce to be “stretched thin,” customers to wait longer for medical bills and financial documents and traffic to increase at the new center, while also requesting additional data on USPS’ decision making. 

So what can we learn from the mess that has ramped up in the postal system due to DeJoy, a conservative mega-donor placing large funds behind Trump, and then unjustly being rewarded with a job he was not qualified to undertake?  First, it is no wonder that most people believe the super-wealthy has too much influence than the rest of us in our politics. The super-rich can try to bend policy and shape institutions to fit their perverted sense of how government needs to be trimmed or why privatization is a wonder that only needs to be implemented to show its promise. The other lesson we might learn is that sitting down and having a conversation with average Americans from Bemidji or Madison about why the mail system is an essential part of their lives and must not be short-changed would be more important than making a knee-jerk move to fulfill a conservative wet-dream.