Welcome to Capital Futures

Maintained by Robert Hockett

Featuring

Public Finance for Perpetual
Public Progress

Welcome to Capital Futures, a Site dedicated to Financially Engineering Ever More Just and Remunerative, Labor-Owned Modes of Production and Distribution in the Spirit of Hamilton, Hilferding, Lincoln, List, Luxemburg, Marx, Perkins and Wicksell, Among Other Heroes of Human Emancipation.

Projects

Publications Catalogue

Columns, OpEds, Occasional Journalism

I'm no Marx or Keynes, but like them I do try to accompany most of my scholarly, policy advocacy, and legislative work with more accessible journalistic companion pieces. Here are some of my regular columns for Forbes, The Hill, FT, and Huffington Post, along with other occasional journalism.

Image: Ben Franklin at his printing press, 18th century Philadelphia

The Green New Deal

The Green New Deal initiative begun in 2018 marked the beginning of a return to ambitious public-private coordination in the cause of rebuilding the American economy along more just, productive, and sustainable lines. Hockett worked with Rep. Ocasio-Cortez and her team from the start on the GND Resolution introduced to Congress in early 2019, then on the initiative's finance plan as well as much follow-up legislation found in the 'Legislation' Module of this site.

Image: Cover Art for Hockett's 'Financing the Green New Deal: A Plan of Action and Renewal
inspiration

Posthumous Mentors

Alexander Hamilton
Alexander Hamilton
1755/1757-1804

Alexander Hamilton, born out of wedlock in Charlestown, Nevis, Danish Virgin Islands, was orphaned as a child and 'discovered' as a prodigy by local merchants and clergy. An autodidact, he taught himself law and finance while serving in the Revolutionary War, then worked with seemingly boundless creativity and energy in devising the US Constitution, financial system, and public finance architecture. He has been my hero since age 7, when I too lived in (the northernmost city of) the Caribbean.

Bill Burroughs
Bill Burroughs
1914-97

This one's a bit personal too. Bill lived his last years in Lawrence, KS, where my closest friends and I did our undergraduate work. He developed a crush of sorts on one of us - Lori - thanks to her not having treated him as a celebrity at Dillon's, where Lori worked and Bill bought his groceries. He hung out at our house often after that. (Cf. my recollection at Leg's McNeil's website, linked here.) I always preferred 'Junky' to Bill's 'experimental' writing, but we all loved his singularity.

View All Posthumous Mentors

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