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Economy
In reply to the discussion: STOCK MARKET WATCH -- Monday, 3 February 2014 [View all]Demeter
(85,373 posts)2. Mirabile Dictu! Post Office Bank Concept Gets Big Boost by Yves Smith
http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2014/01/mirabile-dictu-postal-services-banking-concept-gets-big-boost.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+NakedCapitalism+%28naked+capitalism%29
Naked Capitalism readers have frequently called for the Post Office to offer basic banking services, as post offices long have in many countries, notably Japan. That idea has gotten an important official endorsement in the form of a detailed, extensively researched concept paper prepared by the Postal Services Inspector General. Ive embedded it and strongly urge you to read and circulate it.
One of the stunning parts in reading the document is to see how wildly successful this program could be, precisely because traditional banks are withdrawing from many of the neighborhoods in which moderate and lower-income people live, and non-banks offer targeted, richly priced services, too often designed to take advantage of desperation or simple lack of alternatives. Even though most of us are aware of this general picture, the USPS IG, dimensions the scale of this problem and the costs to the affected households.
There are 34 million un and underbanked American households, which translates into 28% of the population. And consider what this second-class status translated into in fees and other charges:
The average underserved household has an annual income of about $25,500 and spends about $2,412 of that just on alternative financial services fees and interest. That amounts to 9.5 percent of their income. To put that into perspective, that is about the same portion of income that the average American household spends on food in one year.5 In 2012 alone, the underserved paid some $89 billion in fees and interest...MORE
Naked Capitalism readers have frequently called for the Post Office to offer basic banking services, as post offices long have in many countries, notably Japan. That idea has gotten an important official endorsement in the form of a detailed, extensively researched concept paper prepared by the Postal Services Inspector General. Ive embedded it and strongly urge you to read and circulate it.
One of the stunning parts in reading the document is to see how wildly successful this program could be, precisely because traditional banks are withdrawing from many of the neighborhoods in which moderate and lower-income people live, and non-banks offer targeted, richly priced services, too often designed to take advantage of desperation or simple lack of alternatives. Even though most of us are aware of this general picture, the USPS IG, dimensions the scale of this problem and the costs to the affected households.
There are 34 million un and underbanked American households, which translates into 28% of the population. And consider what this second-class status translated into in fees and other charges:
The average underserved household has an annual income of about $25,500 and spends about $2,412 of that just on alternative financial services fees and interest. That amounts to 9.5 percent of their income. To put that into perspective, that is about the same portion of income that the average American household spends on food in one year.5 In 2012 alone, the underserved paid some $89 billion in fees and interest...MORE
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But business people prefer to have workers competing with each other for jobs.
tclambert
Feb 2014
#7
But, but according to trickle down economics, it should rain money on all of us below.
tclambert
Feb 2014
#49
Real State of the Union: Income Redistribution to Wealthy Continued Up at Accelerating Pace in 2013
Demeter
Feb 2014
#26
The Middle Class Is Steadily Eroding. Just Ask the Business World OR KRUGMAN, ABOVE
Demeter
Feb 2014
#39
Problems of Eurozone, European Integration Stem From Deeply Unpopular Elite Economic, Social Policy
Demeter
Feb 2014
#35