I don’t see the connection between the Postal Service and banking. Is it just it was historically there? If that’s the case, you could attach it to any department.
> I don’t see the connection between the Postal Service and banking. Is it just it was historically there? If that’s the case, you could attach it to any department.
Before the FDIC was created to cover bank runs & closures, the USPS was proposed to expand into being a postal savings system, a system that was already done by the UK beforehand & had proven to work.
History not withstanding The reason people talk about the post office is a bank is because it has physical branches in just about every community in the country. More so than any other federal organization, and it is designed to serve all citizens on a frequent basis versus other federal organizations that might deal with citizens on a much less frequent basis.
It used to provide some limited banking services up until the 60s and it still does billions of dollars worth of money orders a year so a lot of the infrastructure is still there.
Many countries have postal savings systems, often very significant. The first was in the UK, 1861.[1] In the US, existed 1911 - 1967, started in the wake of the Panic of 1907.[2] The Japan Post Bank is among the largest savings institutions worldwide.[3] France's La Poste Group website[4] highlights "eliminating banking customer refusal" and provides an extensive suite of services.
The U.S. Constitution, Article 1, Section 8, explicitly gives Congress the power "To establish Post Offices and post Roads." A few lines earlier the same article grants Congress the power "To borrow Money on the credit of the United States." Would it then seem odd for the Congress to be assumed to have the power to create postal bonds, so common in much of the world?
[Addendum]
Might not be such a stretch then to imagine a Postal Savings System or something similar with great reach in the US, potentially encompassing much of what commercial banks handle today. The advantages including stability and availability, and perhaps even efficiency. Perhaps Hyman Minsky might have wished for things to... go postal?
banking does sometimes require actual money still, much more so if you're poorer. What's another institution that has offices everywhere, ships things every day, and privately and securely stores things for huge numbers of customers? Remember, DMVs/RMVs are state-level.
Hell, they're even surprisingly used to keeping large amounts of valuable paper safe. It wasn't that long ago that you could make a lot of money stealing stamp sheets.
> What's another institution that has offices everywhere, ships things every day, [...]
Walmart or 7-11 or so? Jokes aside, giving banking licenses to retailers might be a sensible thing to do. (Or removing the whole system of banks requiring licenses altogether would be even better.)
"At its more than 4,600 in-store MoneyCenters, as well as online, millions of customers have access to basic, low-cost banking services, including the ability to withdraw cash, make deposits, and pay bills."
