Looking for investments

The US economy isn't doing all that great these days. But the US economy is really just a network of loosely connected local economies. And, although the money supply part of the economy is fairly consistent from place to place, the production and employment aspects of the economy not so much.

The current (April) US unemployment rate is 8.6 percent. But that includes a range of 26.9 percenbt in El Centro, California to 3,2 percent in Iowa City , Iowa. That's a lot of variance.

The only bank headquartered in Iowa City is MidWestOne Bank which has a Troubled Asset ratio of 37.8 against a national median ratio of 11.7.

So although the Iowa City local economy isn't doing so bad, the local bank is doing pretty badly. Let's look elsewhere.


Ames Iowa has a 3.6 percent unemployment rate.

Still not so great. First National Bank of Ames has a Troubled Asset Ratio of 29.8

Let's try one more before we give up.

Houma Louisiana has a 3.6 unemployment rate.

Bingo. Coastal Commerce Bank has a Troubled Loan Ratio of 1 percent.

Let's take a look at them in some more detail.

The problem is that I can't find a ticker symbol for them, I'm guessing they are so closely held that the stock isn't traded.

Oh well, I'll try again tomorrow.