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

Julius Nyrere
Julius Nyrere
1922-99

An anti-colonial leader during his youth, Nyerere led the free nation of Tanzania from 1964 to 1985. A judicious philosopher-statesman, his 'Uhuru na Ujamaa' eloquently elaborated a vision of cooperative commonwealth that cohered both with local tradition and with what later came to be called the 'Appropriate Technology' movement in developing countries seeking their own paths free of Western and Northern 'advice.'

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.

View All Posthumous Mentors

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