A Public Option for Simple BankingBy: David Dayen - FDL
Wednesday September 7, 2011 2:17 pm
<snip>
The White House, while asking for a 90-day extension on the retiree benefits payment, is working on their own rescue plan for the Postal Service, and who knows what form that will take.
But if they wanted to be innovative, the way to fix the Postal Service is clearly to allow it to take on more services, which would benefit consumers as well as their bottom line. Post offices have prime real estate in the center of communities, and would be well-positioned to give the public more value. Specifically, they could take on simple banking services, as postal services have done in other countries.The problem, I think, is that for all that Republicans like deregulation, they really hate the idea of a state-owned organization competing with the private sector. Of course, the Post Office does that already — it competes with FedEx and UPS. But the USPS, as a government-subsidized organization with thousands of locations nationwide and a massive reserve of public trust, could be a formidable competitor in all manner of different markets and none of the incumbents in those markets would welcome the competition.
Over the long term, however, I suspect that the only way to save the Post Office will be to allow it to move into financial services. There’s a lot of expertise in the rest of the world when it comes to the questions of how to set up and run a post bank. Meanwhile, banks in the U.S. are mistrusted and disliked and many people would love to be able to just bank at the Post Office instead. It might be too late now to set up a post bank — but I doubt it. (This is still a country, after all, where most people still use paper checks.) There’s a window of opportunity here. Let’s grab it, before it’s too late.
his is an incredibly good idea. Mail volume is dropping and it will continue to drop for some time. What little banking services the Post Office already provides, i.e. money orders, are incredibly popular. Wouldn’t it be great to have a “public option” for simple banking, which is all the majority of Americans need? I’m not saying the Post Office should sell mortgages or money markets or CDs. But holding onto cash and allowing check writing and ATM services is right within its wheelhouse.<snip>
More:
http://news.firedoglake.com/2011/09/07/a-public-option-for-simple-banking/:shrug:
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