. . . Manhattan Island in 1626 is about $48 trillion today, adjusted for inflation. It actually amounts to the relatively paltry sum of $1,143 at an updated valuation, the last time I checked. HYSTERICAL HIGH SPOTS IN AMERICAN HISTORY shows a ruminative Pete smirking at snatching this prime piece of real estate "for a steal." This is how "The Art of the Deal" always has gone down in America. All the historical figures referred to by name here were artists, all right: Specifically, Con Artists. People such as Chris Columbus, Bill Bradford, Pete Minuit, George Washington, Paul Revere, Sam Morse, Tom Edison, Hank Ford and Herb Hoover shared a single talent: Their uncanny knack of stealing the credit for other people's ideas, accomplishments and work, and litigating a fortune on the backs of abused ordinary honest working Americans.