THANKS AND LET THE COUNTDOWN BEGIN

As with each of the few past years, this article goes out against a backdrop where the economy is chugging along and an industry under stress - but getting slowly better. So our readers don't forget all that has happened and all that they have survived, we offer a recap of 2011. Before we do, however, we thank you for your business this past year and look forward to doing more with your bank in 2012. Thanks again and Happy New Year. Here is the year that was. The Top 5 biggest financial news events of the year included: S&P's downgrade of US debt from "AAA"; European crisis; Quantitative Easing #2; cyber attacks and Occupy Wall Street. Meanwhile, the Top 5 financial missteps of the year included: the bankruptcy of MF Global; Raj Rajaratnam insider trading; Bank of American's debit fee debacle; Citigroup's major data breach and Bank of America's foreclosure on a couple who then foreclosed on a BofA branch they owned. The Financial Crisis continued and the Inquiry Commission concluded, "the crisis was avoidable and was caused by: Widespread failures in financial regulation, including the Federal Reserve's failure to stem the tide of toxic mortgages; Dramatic breakdowns in corporate governance including too many financial firms acting recklessly and taking on too much risk; An explosive mix of excessive borrowing and risk by households and Wall Street that put the financial system on a collision course with crisis; Key policy makers ill prepared for the crisis, lacking a full understanding of the financial system they oversaw; and systemic breaches in accountability and ethics at all levels." Industries that added the most jobs included: retail; hospitality; technology; automotive and professional services. Meanwhile, industries that cut the most jobs included: government; financial services, retail, aerospace/defense and pharmaceutical. Companies that hired the most people included: McDonald's (62k); Ford (12k); Lowe's (10k); GM (6k) and Google (6k). Meanwhile, companies that fired the most were: Bank of America (36k); HSBC (30k); Borders (17k); Merck (13k) & Cisco (7k). Other major events for the year included: The deaths of terrorists Osama bin Laden, Anwar al-Awlaki and Muammar Gaddafi; the biggest earthquake and tsunami in Japanese history that also triggered the nuclear accident; major tornados in southern US states; the Arab Spring; Greek protests; Libyan and Syrian civil war; Egyptian revolution & the Royal Wedding. The best inventions of the year in our humble opinion were: The Stark prosthetic hand (has fingers that work and looks like a real hand); Amnesia Connect (allows users to share data between smartphones and tablets by simply swiping the files); PCEye (tracks movement of a user's eyes and coverts it into mouse cursor on the screen); CellScope (a mini microscope that slips onto the iPhone); Avatar (a device that scans facial features and uses voice analysis to detect deception of people boarding planes) and the freeKey (a roll-able keyboard) & the Nano Hummingbird (defense purposes). The Top 5 searches on Google were (after filtering out navigational searches): iPhone; Casey Anthony; Kim Kardashian; Katy Perry & Jennifer Lopez. The Top 5 baby names were: Girls - Isabella (made popular by the Twilight movie series); Emma (Harry Potter); Olivia; Sophia and Ava. Boys - Jacob (biblical & Twilight); Ethan; Michael (perennial favorite and Michael Jackson); Alexander and William. The highest grossing movies: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2; Transformers: Dark of the Moon; Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides; Kung Fu Panda 2 and Fast Five. In pop culture, we bid a sad but fond farewell to famous people including: Visionary: Steve Jobs. Actors: Jeff Conaway; Jackie Cooper; Peter Falk; Harry Morgan; Charles Napier; Cliff Robertson; Jane Russell & Elizabeth Taylor. Sports: Seve Ballesteros; Al Davis; Joe Frazier; Harmon Killebrew; Randy Savage; Bubba Smith & Dan Wheldon. Singers/Entertainers: Clarence Clemons; Nate Dogg; Patrice O'Neal & Amy Winehouse. Others: Warren Christopher; Lawrence Eagleburger; Geraldine Ferraro; Betty Ford; Bill Keane; Jack Kevorkian; Jack Lalanne; Sidney Lumet; Andy Rooney & Sargent Shriver. As we prepare for 2012, we fondly recall this year and look forward to an even better one for community bankers. We wish you a happy, healthy and prosperous New Year.