Happy Groundhog Day. Let’s hope Phil doesn’t see his shadow this morning. Every year, they cover the event in Punxsutawney, but I don’t give it much credence when he “sees his shadow.” If I woke up and came out first thing in the morning and a bunch of drunk people were standing around my door, I’d run back in, too.

Congratulations to the Steelers. Vegas gave almost 2:1 odds to the Cardinals straight up. If you wanted seven points instead, you had to give slight odds to the bookies. Turns out, I should’ve taken the seven points.

Did a buyer go bankruptcy on you right after you sold them goods? Don’t give up. You might have a reclamation claim, but you need to move fast. You need to send the claim within 20 days after the debtor files bankruptcy or within 45 days after it received the goods. This pdf site has a good explanation.

Banking law. Surprisingly, there isn’t much legal material out there, relatively speaking. If you go to Amazon, you can find five, maybe ten, books about that area of law, but only a couple geared toward lawyers. Legal book publishers frequently have banking law books, but only a few. The Michigan Institute of Continuing Legal Education doesn’t offer a single book on the subject and hasn’t offered a single seminar. We have materials in our office, but the online offering is scarce. If you’re looking for a reliable online resource, I’d recommend starting with the Cornell Law site. This page offers a nice overview, along with links for further exploration.

Interesting fact of the week:

The ‘dollar” originated as the name generally applied to a one-ounce silver coin minted by a Bohemian count named Schlick, in the sixteenth century. Count Schlick lived in Joachimsthal. His coins, which enjoyed a great reputation for uniformity and fineness, were called Joachimsthalers and finally, just thalers. The word dollar emerged from the pronunciation of thaler. Murray Rothbard, The Mystery of Banking (The Ludwig von Mises Institute, 2008), p. 9.

It’s interesting that the dollar emerged from what we call “silver rounds” today. Silver rounds are privately-minted ingots that look like the old silver dollars, but they’re not legal tender for anything. You might barter with them, but other than, they’re just pretty and, like gold, a hedge against inflation.

But some economists (a handful at the fringe) think the economy is heading for a complete break down, with the result that such silver rounds may again regain thaler-like purchasing power. Of course, those doomsayers have always been out there. How many times does a person have to cry “wolf” before everyone stops believing him?

Probably until there’s no chance the wolf will ever arrive . . . and there aren’t a whole lot of people out there today that don’t fear the wolf’s arrival. Maybe that’s why silver is taking off.

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