Smooth-talking con artists are familiar figures in American folklore. The well-dressed hustler arrives in an unsuspecting town. He pitches some miracle cure or get-rich-quick scheme, door-to-door or from atop a soapbox. Then before his customers realize they’ve been duped, he steals away in search of his next mark. It’s a risky vocation, one that demands quick feet, a keen understanding of human nature, and a talent for telling stories that both arouse and reassure.

But when it comes to profiting off people’s hopes and fears, by far the most successful purveyors of lucrative lies and false promises are some of the denizens of this country’s palatial estates, corporate boardrooms, and corridors of political power. And unlike their small-time counterparts, they’re never on the run — despite the misery they leave in their wake. Enter Donald J. Trump, soon to be the 45th President of the United States. More

Trump's economic plan has sent stocks ripping higher for six weeks straight. But what's going to happen to stock prices when Congress gives Trump's plan a big thumbs down? Has anyone thought about that yet?

And what about the Fed? Does anyone seriously think that Fed chairman Janet Yellen is going to sit on her hands while Trump launches a $1 trillion fiscal stimulus package that triggers a sudden burst of growth followed by a sharp uptick in inflation? More

In the days following 9/11, the Chilean-born writer Ariel Dorfman wrote what, for me, were the truest and most indelible words about that tragic event. Right here in CounterPunch, in an article published on October 3, 2001, and titled “America’s No Longer Unique,” Mr. Dorfman expressed grief and sympathy for the lives lost, while also pleading for a compassionate response from a country that had just experienced what other, “less fortunate peoples” had experienced before; an America that had just had the bubble of its “famous exceptionalism” burst.

I still repost that story every anniversary of 9/11, awaiting the day that never comes, the day when the United States eschews violence and, in Mr. Dorfman’s eloquent prose, the “new Americans forged in pain and resurrection are ready and open and willing to participate in the arduous process of repairing our shared, our damaged humanity.” More