My Books
Hot off the press. More coming soon.
Climate scientists have determined that we must act now to prevent an irreversible and catastrophic climatic tipping point, beyond which neither our own nor many other species can be assumed likely to survive. On the way to that bleak ending, moreover, extreme socio-economic injustice and associated political breakdown―now well underway in nations already hard-hit by environmental crisis―can be expected to hasten as well.
The time has thus come to plan carefully, thoroughly, and on a scale commensurate with the crisis we face. This book, written by one of the key architects of the Green New Deal and prefaced by Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's former Chief of Staff, indicates how to structure Green New Deal finance in a manner that advances the cross-cutting goals of maximum financial and economic inclusion, maximally democratic decision-making, and an appropriate division of roles both among all levels of government and among public and private sector decision-makers.
Integrating into one complete and coherent financial architecture such bold ideas as a 'People's Fed,' an interdepartmental National Investment Council, integrated state and regional public banks, a Democratic Digital Dollar and digital Taxpayer Savings and Transaction Accounts made part of the monetary policy transmission belt, and an economy-wide Price Stabilization Fund, this book is critical reading for policymakers and citizens looking for a fresh path forward towards a revived and sustainable, progressive and productive America.
Bob Hockett's mission in this powerful treatise is to free us from defunct, orthodox thinking about the purposes of public and private finance, the supposed incompatibility of justice and efficiency, and the putative divergence of prosperity and sustainability. All of these false tradeoffs, he shows us, are just that: false. The key is to get the finance right.
An interdisciplinary tour de force.” -Paul Allen McCulley, Former Managing Director and Chief Economist, PIMCO; Adjunct Professor of Finance, Georgetown McDonough School of Business
"State investment is often driven by a national mission to boost development or security―think of the railway boom, the creation of the interstate highway system, or the development of the internet, all of which were fueled by the public sector. In this important new book, Robert C. Hockett lays out how to do industrial policy, American-style, and tells us why a Green New Deal is crucial to the future of not only U.S. economic growth, but liberal democracy itself." -Rana Foroohar, Global Economic Analyst, CNN; Global Business Columnist and Associate Editor, Financial Times
“You might disagree with some of these proposals, as do I. But you cannot afford to ignore them. Anyone who wants a sustainable future will have to develop means of assuring it that are as creative and ambitious―as 'out of the box' –as these.” -Robert J. Shiller, Nobel Laureate and Sterling Professor of Economics, Yale University
This book is the first of its kind in several overlapping and rapidly developing fields that now dominate news headlines – among them the fields of crypto-currency, digital payments platforms, ‘fintech,’ and central bank digital currencies (‘CBDCs’). With crypto and fintech now threatening to transform finance in destabilizing and anti-democratic ways, and with China and other nations now digitizing their national currencies in the form of CBDCs that make the US dollar and national payments infrastructure look ever more quaint and outmoded, this book shows both why the US and other democratic commercial societies must, and how they can, democratically digitize their currencies, their national payments systems, and the authorities that respectively issue and administer them – in the US, the Federal Reserve System (‘the Fed’).
“Computer scientists, financiers, and economists often overlook the ways money, finance & accounting on one hand, and money, banking, & central banks on the other all interact. After Hockett’s treatise, no such ‘siloed’ thinking will be possible. In highly accessible prose supplemented by simple intuitive diagrams, Hockett shows how the trillions of commercial and financial transactions that occur in our economies each day can be modeled as single national account books of millions of interlocking personal and institutional balance sheets – full ‘Citizens’ Ledgers’ that technology is now able to replicate.” (U.S. Congressman Ro Khanna.)
“With the inclusive vision and bold energy that have become hallmarks of Robert Hockett's work, The Citizens' Ledger: Digitizing Our Money, Democratizing Our Finance does not disappoint. Hockett challenges readers to imagine – and then operationalize – a universal public savings and payments infrastructure for ‘citizens of the contemporary commercial republic.’ Fans and foes alike of digital technologies will revel in the breadth and sheer exhilaration of Hockett's ambitious and sweeping proposal to reimagine the US financial system.” (Sarah Bloom Raskin, former Deputy Secretary of the Treasury, 2013-17; former Governor, Federal Reserve Board, 2010-13)
“In this exciting book, the uniquely imaginative legal and financial scholar Robert Hockett proposes a streamlined way to make our newly electronic ‘Babel’ of cash payment methods more equitable and efficient. His universal savings and payments platform, administered by the Treasury or the Fed, would sharply reduce costs, speculative excesses, and opportunities to defraud while also eliminating the problems of financial exclusion and the unbanked with a single stroke. Hockett’s is the first book of its kind, and likely to be the definitive word on its subjects.” (Jeff Madrick, New York Times economics columnist; author of The Age of Greed, The End of Affluence, and other books)
In Law, Economics, and Conflict, Kaushik Basu and Robert C. Hockett bring together international experts to offer new perspectives on how to take analytic tools from the realm of academic research out into the real world to address pressing policy questions. As the essays discuss, political polarization, regional conflicts, climate change, and the dramatic technological breakthroughs of the digital age have all left the standard tools of regulation floundering in the twenty-first century. These failures have, in turn, precipitated significant questions about the fundamentals of law and economics.
The contributors address law and economics in diverse settings and situations, including central banking and the use of capital controls, fighting corruption in China, rural credit markets in India, pawnshops in the United States, the limitations of antitrust law, and the role of international monetary regimes. Collectively, the essays in Law, Economics, and Conflict rethink how the insights of law and economics can inform policies that provide individuals with the space and means to work, innovate, and prosper—while guiding states and international organization to regulate in ways that limit conflict, reduce national and global inequality, and ensure fairness.
In this wonderful book on law, economics, and development, the authors apply new concepts and methods to arrive at unexpected insights and conclusions. Each chapter is highly rewarding and provides a deeper understanding of key institutional, cultural, and technical factors of development, conflict, justice, and sustainability. The authors combine analytical clarity with a comprehensive knowledge of the subject matter.
Hans-Bernd Schäfer, Bucerius Law School
When the government decides to spend money, it simply creates the necessary funds for itself–as if out of thin air. That’s how we pay for interstate highways, post offices, wars, social services, and economic stimulus packages. If it’s that easy to make money . . . can’t we all get more of it? Absolutely. And we should.
So argue financial regulation expert Robert Hockett and bestselling philosopher Aaron James in this eye-opening, irreverent, and inspiring exploration of what the dollar really is. And better still, they show how we can build an economy that works for everybody without unwanted taxes and added regulations.
In the process, we learn how disingenuous the political rhetoric surrounding inflation can be, how the demonized concept of the deficit is really just another way of tallying our collective national wealth, and how a strong central bank could free us from the abuses of private banking.
With broad historical background and ambitious yet practical institutional proposals, Hockett and James offer a new vision of public finance–people’s banking for a people’s economy. Armed with this new outlook, we can even stop worrying debt and learn to love a strong, accountable, and transparent Federal Reserve as a cornerstone of our democracy.
“Breezy and entertaining, Money From Nothing brings history, philosophy and institutional common sense to show that our economic problems are not, for the most part, mysterious matters intrinsic to money, banking, deficits and public debt. One only wishes that the real difficulties—energy, environment, financial fraud, racism, globalization and the coronavirus—were so easy to resolve.”
—James K. Galbraith, author of Inequality: What Everyone Needs to Know
“Climate Change and other global disasters do not care about your pet economic theory. They’re coming. Ready or Not. Hockett and James reimagine how we should think about money, finally giving us the fiscal space to act decisively. If we do not listen to the call of this book, nature, not fiscal probity, will bat last.”—Mark Blyth, author of Austerity, co-author of Angrynomics
“Grasping the meaning of money ain’t easy. Luckily, in Money From Nothing we have two amazing teachers, who laugh at themselves while seducing you into a deeper understanding of money as a social contract. Hockett and James are masters at their intellectual crafts, and damn fine wordsmiths. Read this book: a tour de force of candy for the brain!”
—Paul McCulley, Retired Managing Director and Chief Economist, PIMCO; Senior Fellow, Cornell Law School; Adjunct Professor, Georgetown McDonough School of Business
“[An] illuminating and accessible guide to how the Federal Reserve could act to improve the economy and the lives of everyday Americans . . . a lucid and persuasive call for financial reform.”—Publishers Weekly
“Timely . . . a heady proposal for a new social compact, with every point well worth debating . . . A wildly contrarian argument that contains many provocations—and some sensible solutions to big fiscal problems, too.”—Kirkus Reviews
What if our financial system were organized to the benefit of the many rather than simply empowering the few? Robert Hockett and Fred Block argue that an entirely different financial system is both desirable and possible. They outline concrete steps that could get us there. Financial systems move the worlds savings from investment to investment, chasing the highest rates of return. They run on profit. But what if investment went to the enterprises or institutions that provided things that the majority of people would prioritize?Democratizing Finance includes six responses that seek to amend, elaborate, and challenge the arguments developed by Hockett and Block. Some of the core arguments put forward by other contributors include calls for the rapid elimination of private financial entities, the dilemmas of the politics associated with financial reforms, and the fate of parallel proposals advanced in the US in the 1930s.
Little Big of Big Ideas: Law distills the essential history of two millennia of legal thought and practice through the lives of 50 great legal minds. The great trial lawyers, judges, codifiers, and legal philosophers are all introduced, along with 10 legal principles that underpin modern systems of justice. Find out where the law comes from, the people who developed it, and what justifies it. Discover the great activist lawyers, the defenders of human rights, and founders of international law. From Hammurabi and the legal codes of ancient Babylon to the groundbreaking legal theorists of the Enlightenment and contemporary debate about the origins and extent of human rights, the Little Book of Big Ideas: Law charts the developments of the legal systems that rule our lives today.
"These books are good starting places for research." —School Library Journal
"These books are fun, educational, concise and pretty entertaining." —Post and Courier, on the Little Book of Big Ideas series
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