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A
functioning economy depends on a basic principle: cheaters shouldn't win. But Donald Trump has tossed aside that principle, and that has real consequences. When the rules disappear, the worst actors thrive and everyone else pays the price.

In our new print issue, we examine how the collapse of financial enforcement and consumer protection is opening the floodgates to a golden age of scams. Under Trump, the referees have left the field. Civil penalties go unenforced. White-collar fraudsters are rewarded with pardons. Entire arms of the government designed to prevent theft, abuse, and discrimination are being dismantled.

It's an intentional choice to let exploitation run wild. If there's a way to game the system, someone's doing it-and now they're doing it with the government's blessing.

We dug into the scams, the players, the enablers, and the victims. We're really proud of the work we put into this issue and we hope you find it both interesting and illuminating. If you'd
like to get a print edition delivered to your mailbox 6 times a year you can subscribe to our magazine here. [link removed]'re a reader supported, nonprofit publication and your subscription powers the stories you'll read below and many more in the future.??

Here is a taste of what you can find in our new issue:

* Writing fellow Emma Janssen in Sunburnt [link removed] the shady world of the door-to-door solar sales industry, and how Trump's gutting of the CFPB has left vulnerable homeowners exposed to a network of unscrupulous "solar bro" salespeople, lenders, and fintech companies who often trap people in disastrous loans.

* Predatory Lenders in the Operating Room
[link removed] by Bryce Covert asks the reader to imagine a truly awful scenario: you're in immense pain and can't afford an essential procedure and you're presented with a medical credit card. The terms seem reasonable. No interest for the first year? Sure. Like many sophisticated scams, the devil is in the details.

* In Borrowers Besieged [link removed], our executive editor, David Dayen, dives into the dizzying world of student loan debt to outline the cascading failures of the system to protect students from predatory debt servicing, debt relief, and for-profit college companies and what the hollowing out of regulatory agencies and government means for the millions of people saddled with student loan debt.

* Three Coin Monte
[link removed] Jacob Silverman describes what may be the greatest and most brazen tale of corruption in history: Trump's crypto project. Silverman outlines how Trump is using his "shitcoin" to monetize the presidency and create new avenues for influence peddling along with an analysis of what a deregulation of the crypto industry means for the economy and individuals impacted by scams and schemes perpetrated by bad actors.

* Investigative editor Maureen Tkacik introduces us to the world of merchant cash advance in Usury in the Water [link removed], an unbelievably lurid tale of the tycoons who sell effectively payday loans to small businesses and ruin their livelihoods. One of them was on Trump's pardon
list in 2020; he's back in jail, for now.

There are many more excellent features inside the issue which you can access online in their entirety by taking a look at the Golden Age of Scams link [link removed] on our website. We're a reader supported organization so if you value our work you can subscribe to our magazine here [link removed] or make a donation to fuel independent, nonprofit media. [link removed]

Mitchell Grummon
Publisher
The American Prospect

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