A few years ago there was a movement to close bank accounts and move to credit unions (or at least ethical banks). Citizens of the world should reject modern banks as the evil institutions they are. I predict that they soon will.
> a new report suggests a way to add to its bottom line: offer banklike services, such as a check cashing card that would allow holders to make purchases and pay bills online or even take out small loans. The idea is to provide services that are now unavailable in many communities.
> ... for a while, [the Postal Savings System, established in 1910] was quite successful. "By the year of the Wall Street crash, 1929, they had $153 million on deposit. Postal savings banks were considered safe during the '30s when commercial banks were crashing." Rubio says their peak year was 1947 when they had $3.4 billion on deposit.
> But after World War II, banks raised their interest rates, making the 2 percent the post office was paying for savings less appealing. By 1967, the Postal Savings System was out of business.
It seems it wouldn't be very hard to adapt post systems to electronic age in most countries. It is basically accepted that electronic banking will verify identity by sending out mail (e.g. with login details) so the post is already involved to an extent.
This isn't the first time economies have gone to complete shit due to the extreme greed of banks playing fast and loose.
They're destructive entities.
No banking, no economy. Bitcoin solves the problem about inflation, access to money etc. But s booming economy also needs some sort of lending