continues. host: joining us this morning s kevin kosar, a scholar at the american enterprise institute in washington. he is here to talk about the future of the u.s. postal service. we will have a third line for postal workers. we want to hear from you. before we get to calls, let s talk about the financial state of the postal service. what is it? guest: it is not good. the agency has been running structural deficits for many years. last year was particularly bad. it swelled up to $83 billion driven by responses to the covid situation. the debt last year was $9 billion. host: why is it in this financial situation? guest: there are a few factors at work. paper mail volume has gone down 40% since the great recession in 2008. for the most part, that is where postal revenues come from. we have seen a surge in the quantity of parcels, but it has not been enough. postal service is an expensive operation to run. it is huge. it covers all of continental america, alaska, hawaii, puert
first branch in more ways than one, or at least it s supposed to be. congress seems dysfunctional, broken down or even irresponsible. partisanship polarization as a cause and others talk about temptations of populism or performative politics. scholars might show institutional causes. this volume points to crucial and underappreciated additional reason why congress is struggling so much. it doesn t have the internal capacity to do what we demand of it. the institutional decline of congress and decades long failure to invest in the knowledge and expertise necessary to perform as a first-rate legislature. lack of staff, experience and resources leaves congress at the mercy of lobbyists and executive bureaucracy. we will hear from looks editors why it s happening and what might be done about it. i will introduce two or three panelists and they will speak for a bit about an element of the argument in the book and then we will take up a discussion and then there will be opportunity
entirety at booktv.org. the authors namein the search bar at the top of the page . greetings from the national archives. i m david ferriero, archivist of the united states is my pleasure to welcome you to this booktalk on the sum of the people: how the census has shaped nations, from the ancient world to the modern age . with our special guest andrew whitby. before we hear from our guest author i want to tell you about two upcoming online programs you can view on the national archives youtube channel. on friday, october 30 general hr mcmaster will tell us about his recent book battlegrounds: the fight to defend the free world which is addresses current national security threats and provides a clear pathway to provide strategic competence. joining us will be nicholas coddington, director of the national archives office of public programs on tuesday, november 10 3 pm david winkler who is the smithsonian air and space museum charles lindbergh fellow in aerospace history will
this new volume points to an underappreciated additional reason why congress is struggling so much. it doesn t have the internal capacity to do what we demand of it. these essays chronicles the institutional decline of congress and the decades long failure to invest in the knowledge and expertise necessary for it to perform as a first-rate legislature. a lack of staff, of experience and resources to often leads congress at the mercy of lobbyists and an executive bureaucracy. we ll hear from the books editors about why that has happened and what might be done about it. our format is simple. i will introduce our three panelists. it was each speak for a bit about an element of the argument advanced in the book, then we will pick up a discussion and at the instant will be an opportunity for all of you to engage with the panel in q&a. there are two ways you can ask a question by e-mail or through twitter. you can e-mail your question to elaine allen or you can tweak them at us wit
his agency s monetary policy actions during the coronavirus pandemic. he announced the nation central bank would keep its policies in place such as low interest rates until further notice. this runs an hour. net the federal reserve, we are strongly committed to achieving the monetary policy goals that congress has given us. maximum employment and price stability. since the beginning of the pandemic we have taken forceful actions to provide relief and stability, to ensure the recovery will be as strong as possible. and to limit lasting damage to the economy. today my colleagues but also provided additional guidance for asset purchases. together, these measures ensure monetary policy will continue to deliver support to the economy until the work coverage is complete. i cannot activity has continued to recover from the depressed second-quarter level. the substantial reopening of the economy and real gdp wrote rose in the third quarter. in recent months however the pace of improv