Good Year

2014 has been an excellent year for Oak Bank.  We are blessed with great associates, clients, directors and shareholders.  I just want to wish you a prosperous and healthy 2015! 

Last Minute Shopping

Some of you may be heading out of the office early today to do a little last minute holiday shopping for friends and family.  How you go about that shopping is probably quite different from even five years ago when people primarily shopped in person and usually went to the shopping mall if they were looking for a variety of items.  Some 1,500 malls were built between 1956 and 2005, but barely 1,000 malls remain today (not one new mall has been built since 2006).

Lump of Coal for Christmas

I came across an interesting story on the connection of coal with Christmas.  As we know, our Western culture legend has it that naughty children wake up Christmas morning to find their stockings filled with lumps of coal instead of the desired toys and delicacies.  The negative association between coal and Christmas dates back thousands of years.  In folklore, people's homes are entered via the fireplace, bearing gifts for well-deserving boys and girls and coal for the badly behaved.