America The Gutted: Behind the project

In a groundbreaking 10-month global investigation, GlobalPost editors and correspondents collaborated to bring readers the real story of the shrinking American middle class. 

In the project, team GlobalPost looked to answer the questions: How are complex trends playing out in shuttered factory towns across America? How are they changing lives — for good and sometimes ill — in the emerging boomtowns of the developing world? What is the future for the middle class in the US, and for those aspiring to middle-class status around the world?

We sat down with three of the project's creators, in a Google+ Hangout and a Twitter chat, to find out how the stories came together and what the answers mean for the middle class around the globe.

Read, and watch, the entire America the Gutted project here.