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An empirical history of the U.S. Postal Savings System

Steven Schuster, Matthew Jaremski, Elisabeth Perlman  |  August 25, 2020

By Steven Schuster, Matthew Jaremski and Elisabeth Perlman, includes “In the early years of the program, and especially during times of financial crisis, depositors relied on postal savings for relatively short-term savings, suggesting that they used postal savings as a replacement for banks during spells of distress. … The Panic of 1873 re-framed the discussion … Creswell emphasized the safety of postal savings deposits, and offered the system as a solution to people hiding their money, instead of depositing in banks … The 1929 Crash and ensuing run on commercial banks coincided with a sudden rise in postal savings banks. Between 1930 and 1934, the amount on deposit increased by almost 700% …”

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