MURDER, POLITICS, AND THE END OF THE JAZZ AGE
by Michael Wolraich
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Why the Post Office needs to compete with banks
By EmmaZahn on Wed, 02/05/2014 - 11:40am |
Back in 2011, I said that “the only way to save the Post Office will be to allow it to move into financial services”, seeing as how “banks in the US are mistrusted and disliked and many people would love to be able to just bank at the Post Office instead”.
That’s still true, and has been given a lot more salience since the Post’s Office inspector general released a 33-page white paper, last week, saying that the Post Office should move into what it calls, in its headline, “Non-Bank Financial Services for the Underserved”.
[...]
there’s a very important difference between postal banking, on the one hand, and what the inspector general is proposing, on the other. And while postal banking is a good idea, the non-bank proposal from the inspector general is simply not going to fly.
Indeed, it’s rather worrying and disconcerting — not to mention disingenuous — that the inspector general goes out of its way to say that the Post Office should be a non-bank, rather than a bank:
URL:
http://blogs.reuters.com/felix-salmon/2014/02/03/why-the-post-office-needs-to-compete-with-banks/
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Comments
I think it is a great idea.
I cannot see Republicans going for it though because:
Their banking lobbyists do not like competition and
Democrats will be for it and
Republicans have wished to shut down the PO for sometime now (although there is an argument that in order to shut down the PO we would need a Constitutional Amendment)
by Richard Day on Wed, 02/05/2014 - 2:20pm
How can something compete with something that isn't there?
According to the article, 38% of the zip codes are in places where there isn't even a bank of any sort in which to do business. The little hamlet southwest of me no longer has a bank; it was shut down and the building sold a few years ago. It now functions as an occupational therapy clinic. (Or a massage parlor, as Mr. Flower likes to call it.)
So, now all the folks in that hamlet have to schlep nearly 20 miles to the nearest credit union, or even further for a fancy pants bank in order to cash their SS/welfare check.
But, they still have a post office.
I don't see any problem with the post office offering non-banking services like check cashing and the like. Hell, you can get your check cashed at the damn grocery store here. What's the big deal?
Oh, yeah. The banks don't like he competition.
But, ahem, isn't competition in business a good thing? Isn't that a conservative mantra or something?
Whatta buncha crybabies.
by wabby on Wed, 02/05/2014 - 6:31pm
The big deal is that as a non-bank the post office would just be a
frontreseller for existing banks and forego a lot of potential income.Consumers likely would not notice the difference from their side and many would think that all interest and fees they pay on the financial services offered would go to the post office when in fact the lion's share would be going to a bank like, say, CapitolOne, now the fourth largest customer of the USPS.
There are other downsides as well. Hopefully, more on those later.
by EmmaZahn on Wed, 02/05/2014 - 7:10pm
Ahhhh.
That's what I was thinking...that the fees for service would go to the post office. That part, I'm not so fond of.
by wabby on Wed, 02/05/2014 - 7:54pm