Funny Money

The Post Office Sometimes I do computer support work for the post office in one of the small towns near me. They pay their bill with a Postal Money Order. Think about it. Money orders are something the Post Office sells - they take your cash and give you the money order and sometime later they have to give the cash back to somebody. So what about this one I get that they didn't really sell - or did they - to whom? Or, looking at it another way, did they buy the postal money order so they could pay me with it, and if so, from whom? Do they have to pay the money order fee - to whom? Is there a bank account the money comes from to buy the money order? Or, are we drawing on some giant Postal or U.S. government fund? How does the accounting for all this work?

Back