One Night in Kunduz, One Morning in New York

By Laura Gottesdieners / TomDispatch Nov 16, 2015 I know that the strike was carried out by U.S.-backed, Saudi-led forces, and that it happened only a few days after the Obama administration approved an $11 billion arms deal with Saudi Arabia. But I can't tell you much more. Dig deeper ( 13 Min. Read )

In Appalachia, the Coal Industry Is in Collapse, but the Mountains Aren’t Coming Back

By Laura Gottesdiener, TomDispatch Aug 26, 2015 Though the coal-mining industry in West Virginia is experiencing an unprecedented collapse that threatens to dethrone King Coal once and for all, 14-year-old Ryan Hensley and all the other children growing up in the shadow of these “blank spaces” will never see the decapitated peaks return to thickly forested mountaintops. Dig deeper ( 12 Min. Read )

A Magical Mystery Tour of American Austerity Politics

By Laura Gottesdiener, TomDispatch Jun 10, 2015 Numerous cities and school districts in Michigan are now run by single, state-appointed technocrats. This arrangement not only strips residents of their local voting rights but also gives appointees of the state's austerity-promoting governor the power to do just about anything, including dissolve the cities themselves, all in the name of “fiscal responsibility.” Dig deeper ( 19 Min. Read )

The Continuing Depopulation of Detroit

By Laura Gottesdiener, TomDispatch Apr 20, 2015 The city that was the arsenal of the 20th century may also provide the blueprint for a more precarious era: 100,000 of its residents are on what many call an eviction “conveyor belt.” Dig deeper ( 13 Min. Read )

Two Detroits, Separate and Unequal

By Laura Gottesdiener, TomDispatch Nov 17, 2014 On the brink of a new, post-bankruptcy beginning, Detroit is really two cities. One is comprised of wealthy enclaves linked to a compact, rapidly redeveloping downtown. The other is made up of the rest of the 139-square-mile urban expanse, populated by longtime residents who have fought for decades to survive in an environment that has become increasingly uninhabitable. Dig deeper ( 14 Min. Read )

A Trip to Kuwait (on the Prairie)

By Laura Gottesdiener, TomDispatch Oct 13, 2014 At 9 p.m. on that August night, when I arrived for my first shift as a cocktail waitress at Whispers, one of the two strip clubs in downtown Williston, I didn’t expect a 25-year-old man to get beaten to death outside the joint. Then again, I didn’t really expect most of the things I encountered reporting on the oil boom in western North Dakota this past summer. Dig deeper ( 12 Min. Read )

Could a New Equity Empire Spark the Next Housing Crisis?

Alexander Reed Kelly / Truthdig Apr 10, 2014 Laura Gottesdiener talks with "Democracy Now!" about her TomDispatch article on the team-up of big banks and private equity firms to bundle rental property mortgages into a new financial product called "rental-backed securities." Dig deeper ( 1 Min. Read )

When Predatory Equity Hit the Big Apple

By Laura Gottesdiener, TomDispatch Apr 8, 2014 Private equity firms are partnering with big banks to bundle mortgages on more than 200,000 rental homes across the country bought up in the foreclosure crisis into a new financial product known as “rental-backed securities.” New York City has been a private equity playground for the last decade, and the result, unsurprisingly, has been a disaster for tenants and the market alike. Dig deeper ( 12 Min. Read )

Now You See Me

By Laura Gottesdiener, TomDispatch Jan 24, 2014 Growing up in a well-heeled suburban community, I absorbed our society’s distaste for dissent long before I was old enough to grasp just what was being dismissed, which is why I traveled thousands of miles to a Zapatista “organizing school” in the heart of the Lacandon jungle in southeastern Mexico to try to sort out just what I’d been missing. Dig deeper ( 10 Min. Read )

The Empire Strikes Back

Staff / Truthdig Nov 27, 2013 A whole new get-rich-quick scheme is brewing beneath the fanfare of the nation's hyped housing recovery. Dig deeper ( 11 Min. Read )

The Landscape of Wall Street’s Creative Destruction

By Laura Gottesdiener, TomDispatch Aug 2, 2013 It’s May 2012 and we’re in Woodlawn, a largely African American neighborhood on the South Side of Chicago. The goal of the HIT Squad, short for Housing Identification and Target, is to map blighted, bank-owned homes with overdue property taxes and neighbors angry enough about the destruction of their neighborhood to consider supporting a plan to repossess on the repossessors. Dig deeper ( 15 Min. Read )

How a Bunch of Liberal Groups Are Trying to Kill the Filibuster and Citizens United

Staff / Truthdig Jan 19, 2013 This week on Truthdig Radio in association with KPFK: The progressive plot to save representative democracy, China's retirement bomb, Republican junk science, and doping in sports. Dig deeper ( 1 Min. Read )