My colleague-to-be (starting next year) J.W. Verrett has a good op-ed on the need for reform of the postal monopoly in the Chicago Tribune here.

I examined on postal reform a bit during my FTC tenure in the context of the postal service's exemption from the antitrust laws, which permits it to engage in chicanery that would not be permitted by private companies. And while I wasn't at all surprised by the expense and inefficiency of the postal service, one thing that I learned that did surprise me is the actual scope of subsidies that the postal service receives. For instance, USPS doesn't pay parking tickets or taxes both of which are a huge expense to companies like UPS. USPS also has the power of eminent domain, which its private competitors lack. See Rick Geddes's essay on postal reform here for a discussion.

I would be remiss, of course, in mentioning postal reform without a shout-out to Lysander Spooner (and Randy's Spooner page with an essay on Spooner's postal entrepreneurship and the "unconstitutionality" of prohibitions on private mails).