“Writing is perhaps the greatest of human inventions, binding together people who never knew each other, citizens of distant epochs. Books break the shackles of time.”
― Carl Sagan, Cosmos
Journalist and writer.
I ask the questions people want answered.
Why is housing so expensive?
What would actually happen if the United States decided to default on its debt?
Why was everyone talking about the bond market after the Trump tariffs were announced?
How did Wall Street’s hard-core road warriors handle the 2020 lockdowns? Quontic
I make complicated topics understandable and relevant.
In this story explaining a new financial product, I compared mutual funds to mix tapes
Why is affordable housing so expensive in America? Cherokee
Here, I showed how Zillow wanted to make trading houses as easy as trading stocks
Bio
I’m an award-winning journalist with over a decade of experience breaking news, telling stories, and making complicated things make sense. I've covered the U.S. housing market, financial markets and investing, and public finance. I’m a runner, College Jeopardy! alum, trauma survivor, and basset hound mom.
Writing
The housing crisis threatens the American dream
The traditional American Dream – putting down roots, investing a little sweat equity, watching the nest egg grow steadily – is in peril.
'The civil rights issue of our generation'? A battle over housing erupts in Massachusetts
Do cities and towns have a responsibility to help house all kinds of residents in homes they can afford – and can states compel them to do so if they refuse?
“How hard could it be to ‘not lose’ several dozen acres of land? In a nation where the scars of slavery and racialized violence still loom, pretty hard, as it turns out. Researchers estimate that between 1865 and 1910, Black Americans acquired 15 million acres of land. But by 2001, an estimated 80% of it had been lost.”
This long-form piece was a labor of love.
Fidelity v. fintech in battle over 401(k) access
“The dispute exposes hard truths about America’s retirement savings conundrum. With the decline of pensions, the responsibility for preparing financially for the end of life is now squarely on the shoulders of ordinary people with jobs, kids, aging parents and plenty of other day-to-day concerns. What’s more, the questionable financial literacy and investment skills of most Americans leave them at the mercy of providers of financial services and products…”
The lawyers who took on Big Tobacco are aiming at Realtors
I spent several years covering the efforts to reform the realtor business model, including this blockbuster feature on the class-action lawsuit
Selling your home to an iBuyer could cost you thousands
I was the first national journalist to quantify the cost of using an 'iBuyer' to sell your home
A mostly Black Alabama county has no municipal sewer service
This 2021 expose connected the dots between a DOJ investigation and the use of the Civil Rights Act for environmental justice
What is ‘fiscal justice investing’?
Are municipal bonds the original impact investments?
