Welcome to Marylandbankingblog.com

January is named for the Roman god Janus – the two headed (as opposed to two faced) god of beginnings and endings.  Supposedly, he is the original reason why we all make New Year’s resolutions – to shape and guide the beginning.  However, we all know how New Year’s resolutions go – health club memberships soar with no worries on the part of their owners that they may have a capacity problem in March; diet companies sell lots of pre-packaged plans but obesity still moves up to become a top killer; and businesses put forward plans that are full of good intentions to do better this year – but often by doing the same things that did not work last year.  It might be convenient to make these types of (more…)

In future enewsletters, we may talk about the state of community banking and the slope of our economic recovery and the white waters ahead for certain central Maryland industries. But those topics, we are fairly confident, will still be there in the weeks and months ahead. This month, we want to launch our enewsletter by taking advantage of something that only happens every four years.

Many of us have just finished long late evenings filled with vicarious living as we watched the 2012 Summer Olympics – albeit on a time delayed basis. We know that the Olympics have been around and have honored (more…)

Financing small and medium sized enterprises (SME’s) has become a very popular topic- right up there on some days with health care reform and Wikipedia leaks.  But not unlike all the CNN vs. Fox debates, blogs, Facebook postings and Tweets on the pros and cons of whether inflation or deflation will hurt our children’s future more and whether short term stimulus deficit spending is better or worse than long term entitlement hole plugging, there is much sound and (more…)

Welcome to Marylandbankingblog.com, our new blog site that we hope helps you feel connected and engaged with Howard Bank.  While my initial post will start with an update on the bank and observations on the economy, other Howard bankers and local advisors will add their advice, perspectives and views through subsequent posts.  Finally, we hope to hear your thoughts as well and respond to your suggestions for what you want to know more about and see more of.  I will start with some observations on success.

Malcolm Gladwell has written  a string of best sellers based on finding the common patterns in success stories – whether it be the importance of networking (more…)