The Feds in Business: Look to the Post Office

If anybody needs a good reason to be skeptical of the government’s newfound commitment to efficiency when it comes to the hundreds of billions of dollars of “stimulus” spending, the Chicago Main Post Office facility provides a very obvious example.

Main Post Office, Chicago

This massive, 14-story building spans several city blocks at 2.7 million square feet. Situated in an ultra-prime downtown location, the advertising potential alone is unparalleled: Tens of thousands of cars pass directly through it every day on the main highway heading into and out of town.

Yet this building has sat completely vacant since 1997 when the post office moved to a new facility across the street, meaning the USPS missed out on capitalizing on one of the biggest booms in commercial real estate in history. Worse off, it wasted a small fortune in the process — a 2006 report by the General Accountability Office found the facility costs the USPS $2 million a year simply to maintain.

Spending $2 million a year on an empty building? That sort of waste would never been tolerated in a profit-seeking firm. To believe somehow the new governmental bureaucracies being created will avoid such misuse is both hilarious and frightening.

Thankfully, the property is finally going up for auction. On Aug. 27, the building will be sold to the highest bidder, regardless of price. Suggested opening bid is $300,000, but given the unique structure has an estimated replacement cost of $300 million, you can expect aggressive bidding.

Suggested starting bid: $300,000

Ironically, the sale could indicate an early bottom for the local commercial real estate market. Because they don’t act out of the profit motive, government entities tend to be awful traders. The Bank of England’s disastrous 1999 gold liquidation at which 395 tons were sold at 25-year lows comes to mind. Gold has more than doubled since then.

After spending $24 million dollars over the past 12 years maintaining an empty building, the USPS’s fire sale presents a historic opportunity for an ambitious developer who, to quote Daniel Burnham, “makes no small plans.” 

A few weeks ago I wrote about the danger of buying a security simply because of the dividend. That philosophy applies to stocks -- and currencies as well, where investors too often make the mistake of simply buying the highest-yielding currency, rather than focus on the strongest-performing one.

Stocks Up, Currencies Follow

CurrencyShares Pound (FXB), Euro (FXE), Canadian Dollar (FXC) and Aussie Dollar (FXA) vs. S&P 500 — 3 months

In recent months, most of the high-yielding currency funds, names like CurrencyShares Canadian Dollar Trust (FXC) and CurrencyShares Australian Dollar Trust (FXA) have shown close correlation with stocks. When equities rise, the high-yielding currencies — and most risk assets in general — tend to come along for the ride. 

The lone standout? The Japanese yen, tradable for every investor through funds such as WisdomTree Dreyfus Japanese Yen (JYF) and CurrencyShares Japanese Yen (FXY), which despite the absence of an income component, are now breakeven for the year and outpacing the S&P 500 by about 5%.