Bank Watch ...

[raspberry-blower]

Another banking model that is available:
Public Banking in Costa Rica: A Remarkable Little-known Model

According to a 2003 report by the World Bank, the public sector banks dominating Costa Rica’s onshore banking system include three state-owned commercial banks (Banco Nacional, Banco de Costa Rica, and Banco Crédito Agrícola de Cartago) and a special-charter bank called Banco Popular, which in principle is owned by all Costa Rican workers. These banks accounted for 75 percent of total banking deposits in 2003.

In Competition Policies in Emerging Economies: Lessons and Challenges from Central America and Mexico (2008), Claudia Schatan writes that Costa Rica nationalized all of its banks and imposed a monopoly on deposits in 1949. Effectively, only state-owned banks existed in the country after that. The monopoly was loosened in the 1980s and was eliminated in 1995. But the extensive network of branches developed by the public banks and the existence of an unlimited state guarantee on their deposits has made Costa Rica the only country in the region in which public banking clearly predominates.

This raises some interesting topics. For a start, I would strongly believe that these state owned entities were, by their very creation, banned from dealing in "exotic investment vehicles" - or derivatives. This is in complete contrast to the on-going fraud we have operating in this country. The UK banking "industry" is the complete antithesis to this because:
1) the UK banks are NOT trusted
2) the UK banks are not lending out to SMEs as they should - mainly due to the fact they are sitting on all this QE money to try and deal with the next derivatives implosion, as it will happen. Which will not be pretty.

The Costa Rican's banks' business models described are not that far removed from the old Girobank model either..

PS - you've gotta love the last paragraph

[odaeio]

Yea, was about to root around for my '60's Post Office Savings Book, then remembered they had just sold the Post Office to the bankers and hedge funds, oh, and one or two little private guy's.........s**t, won't bother looking for my Savings Book then........

[RenewableCandy]

Apparently Costa Rica is the happiest country on earth.

[emordnilap]

Yea, was about to root around for my '60's Post Office Savings Book, then remembered they had just sold the Post Office to the bankers and hedge funds, oh, and one or two little private guy's.........s**t, won't bother looking for my Savings Book then........

Coming to the UK soon?

Canada Post to phase out urban home mail delivery
Canada Post is phasing out door-to-door delivery of regular mail to urban residents and increasing the cost of postage

[PS_RalphW]

For now I am lucky. If a parcel is delivered whilst I am out, it is sent to the post office for later collection - all of 50 metres away. The question is, how much longer will it stay open ?

[emordnilap]

TIARA - there is a real alternative. The link is to a short series of very short videos about debt in the US and what to do about it. Can be applied to all countries.

[clv101]

Yea, was about to root around for my '60's Post Office Savings Book, then remembered they had just sold the Post Office to the bankers and hedge funds, oh, and one or two little private guy's.........s**t, won't bother looking for my Savings Book then........

Coming to the UK soon?

Canada Post to phase out urban home mail delivery
Canada Post is phasing out door-to-door delivery of regular mail to urban residents and increasing the cost of postage

Not such a bad idea - in urban areas, I think it would be fine to have mail delivered to within say 1km your house. Make the 24hr post office the hub of the community.

[woodburner]

A dreadful idea IMO. It's as bad as the idea of each parent taking their children to school instead of using a bus. Look what has happened as a result. What about the wasted journeys to the post office to find you have no post? The postal service is just that, a service. Not a way to charge people for a part service.

[biffvernon]

A better idea is to have all the mail, letters and parcels, delivered by the same person with a bike in urban areas and van in rural areas, instead of sending more than half a dozen different vans and lorries everywhere.

Oh, we used to have that before the Royal Mail got broken up and bits sold off to lots of 'competing' firms.

[SleeperService]

Yea, was about to root around for my '60's Post Office Savings Book, then remembered they had just sold the Post Office to the bankers and hedge funds, oh, and one or two little private guy's.........s**t, won't bother looking for my Savings Book then........

Coming to the UK soon?

Canada Post to phase out urban home mail delivery
Canada Post is phasing out door-to-door delivery of regular mail to urban residents and increasing the cost of postage

Yes it is. The same 'Management Team' that screwed Canada Post are now running the Royal Mail. We have been rail-roaded into becoming a US satellite within the EU with the worst of both systems.

A better idea is to have all the mail, letters and parcels, delivered by the same person with a bike in urban areas and van in rural areas, instead of sending more than half a dozen different vans and lorries everywhere.

Oh, we used to have that before the Royal Mail got broken up and bits sold off to lots of 'competing' firms.

That could be a good idea. Merge them into one service and call it say 'The General Post Office' let there be non-transferable virtual shares issued by the Treasury which the GPO buys on behalf of ALL the workforce until they have paid 55% of the value. Then they run the business for themselves buying all the other shares except one golden share retained by HM Govt with a veto on privatization plans.
_________________

[RenewableCandy]

I'd never pick my mail up if I had to cycle a km for the privilege. It's mostly junk anyway (except this time of year, mind).

[woodburner]

Community mailboxes, also known as super-boxes, have been the subject of 4,880 incidents of vandalism, arson, break-ins and other damage recorded by Canada Post. (CBC)

Perhaps we could import tar sands too.

[biffvernon]

Merge them into one service and call it say 'The General Post Office' let there be non-transferable virtual shares issued by the Treasury which the GPO buys on behalf of ALL the workforce until they have paid 55% of the value. Then they run the business for themselves buying all the other shares except one golden share retained by HM Govt with a veto on privatization plans.

Sounds like a plan. Maybe the General Post Office could take over all the phone companies too?

[Tarrel]

A better idea is to have all the mail, letters and parcels, delivered by the same person with a bike in urban areas and van in rural areas, instead of sending more than half a dozen different vans and lorries everywhere.

Oh, we used to have that before the Royal Mail got broken up and bits sold off to lots of 'competing' firms.

We have that. AJG Parcels acts as a subcontractor to most of the main parcel firms and does one drop a day to our town. We've got to know the driver and he knows what to do with parcels if we're not in. RM still delivers separately of course.

There are still a couple of Post Bus routes in our area, linking the railhead at Lairg with some of the more remote settlements in Sutherland. Don't know how long they will last though.

[emordnilap]

The plan, just as with supermarkets phasing out actual employees, is to get the customer to do all the work for nothing.

You can now print your own stamps (with logos, return addresses, even your contacts) online. Go on, do the counter staff out of jobs.