Well, the cost of sending letters will soon rise and delivery times will be slower under new plans for Australian post. The cost of a stamp will go up from 70 cents to one dollar, but concession card holders will still be offered a reduced rate of 60 cents. Communication Ministers Malcolm Turnbull has defended the changes, saying the Australians are sending one billion fewer letters than they were in 2008 with losses rising to more than 300 million dollars a year.

 

“The alternative is either massive subsidies which have run over a decade into 7 billion dollars of taxpayers’ money to keep the status pro-going or alternatively, abandoning the letters business altogether.”

 

And looking at the markets now, the Dow was down more than 0.5%. The Nasdaq and S&P 500 had also lost ground. In London, the FTSE was also trading lower. Checking commodity prices, West Texas Crude is trading at 50 US dollars a barrel. Tapis Crude is trading at 64 US dollars a barrel. And gold is trading at 1204 US dollars an ounce, while the Aussie dollar is buying 78 US cents, 70 euro cents and 51 pence sterling.