From empty factories to vulture circles

Dave Johnson, a Californian, spent a week driving around the Midwest this fall and he was disturbed by what he saw. In his essay, "The Storm that Created the Rust Belt is Heading for Silicon Valley," he describes a typical Midwestern town ringed by the vulture circle of

Wall Street-owned chains emulating the Wal-Mart model of sucking cash out of the area and sending it away to the wealthy elites.

Somewhere else he finds one or more closed-up, fenced-off, rusting old factories or mills.

Read what else he finds in the Midwest -- and how he's starting to see it in California -- here.