Rob Hawkes
@robbhawkes.bsky.social
Money happens; @moneyontheleft.bsky.social editorial collective; credit @wherecreditsdue.bsky.social; Former Chair @modernistudies.bsky.social; he/him; https://linktr.ee/robhawkesMotL
Two things one hears often in Left spaces: "They've got money, we've got people" + "to pay for it, tax the rich." But the fuller, more powerful truth is that the Left can build monetary power—for money is a product of politics. Public finance is the terrain of struggle that connects to all others.
Money on the Left@moneyontheleft.bsky.social · 2d ago"Whereas the luminaries of Ancient Greece adopted a complex allegorical view of the gods, modern economic commentators across the political spectrum worship revenues as deadly literal deities, imagined to be the supreme fulcrum of all future finance."
"By creating a city-owned public bank, Seattle can not only provide residents with low-cost financial services; it can also buy its own debt and pay interest to the city instead of private creditors."
The Seattle Loop: Reclaiming the Public Interest
By Tyler Suksawat & Scott Ferguson A palpable, but indecisive enthusiasm permeated a recent Seattle arts forum, revealing a city desperate for a future that no one quite knows how to build, let…
moneyontheleft.org
A great opportunity for PGRs and ECRs to share their research and connect with fellow modernists! Papers are 10 minutes long, with the option to present online. Do consider submitting, and please spread the word! Deadline: Friday 30 October.
British Association for Modernist Studies (BAMS)@modernistudies.bsky.social · 3d ago🔊 CFP: the deadline for proposals for the New Work in Modernist Studies conference is this Friday 30 October. We welcome short papers from PGRs and ECRs on any aspect of modernist culture and from any disciplinary perspective. Full details here: bams.ac.uk/new-work-in-...
🔊 CFP: the deadline for proposals for the New Work in Modernist Studies conference is this Friday 30 October. We welcome short papers from PGRs and ECRs on any aspect of modernist culture and from any disciplinary perspective. Full details here: bams.ac.uk/new-work-in-...
We recently convened in Philly at about 2:37:00 is @videotroph.bsky.social’s presentation for Democratic Public Finance. The @moneyontheleft.bsky.social presentation about the “Seattle Loop” is around 8:37:00
2026 National Public Banking Institute Conference - Day 1
YouTube video by Public Banking Institute
youtube.com
It's time to turn public libraries into public banks.
The Librarian College Shorts
ALT: The Librarian College Shorts
static.klipy.com
In her academic and political work, Sheridan rejects both the economics and the language of austerity, and instead prioritises democratic, inclusive, and participatory institution building. moneyontheleft.org/2026/05/02/g...
Rob and Scott return to their dialog about modernism, inflation, and F. Scott Fitzgerald’s celebrated 1925 novel The Great Gatsby.
Money, Modernism & Inflation in The Great Gatsby (Part 2)
Rob and Scott return to their dialog about modernism, inflation, and F. Scott Fitzgerald’s celebrated 1925 novel The Great Gatsby (click here for Part 1). During their conversation, our co-hosts fo…
moneyontheleft.org
"[Contemporary fascism] takes neoliberalism’s zero-sum callousness and strips away the polite fiction of economic neutrality—touting austerity not as an unfortunate market necessity, but as an overt, cruel, and often vengeful political choice."
Democratic Public Finance & the Future of Public Banking
By Scott Ferguson The following text was composed as an address for the conference Public Banking for Public Prosperity: A Declaration of Financial Independence, held at the Friends Center in Phila…
moneyontheleft.org
“We approach the issues of money, modernism, and inflation in The Great Gatsby afresh from the point of view of the public money paradigm, which we embrace as members of the @moneyontheleft.bsky.social Editorial Collective.” link.springer.com/chapter/10.1...
Green-Lighting Gatsby: Austere Modernisms, Exuberant Avant-Gardes, and their Orgastic Futures
“Inflation” has been associated, by modernist artists and scholars alike, with a crisis of faith in representation, with exuberance and excess, and with the relativisation and loss of all ...
link.springer.com
“When we understand that inequality and exclusionary violence are built into the logic of private money we can begin to imagine new possibilities for monetary design founded on democratic inclusion, collectivity, and care.”
What is the Public Money Paradigm?
Why reconfiguring our understanding of money changes everything, not just how we think about economics.
robhawkes.substack.com
“The status quo relies on the exclusion of weirdness, strangeness, and otherness to maintain its illusion of affordability. To build an inclusive and sustainable future, we’ll need to recognise and celebrate money as malleable, redesignable, and thus much weirder than we’ve been taught to think.”
Money Is Weird
by Rob Hawkes Isn’t it strange that social inclusion and climate justice appear unaffordable, but not the status quo? In July, I presented at the Weird Modernisms conference at Loughborou…
moneyontheleft.org
How can novels help us think about money … and maybe even save the planet?
How can novels help us think about money … and maybe even save the planet? (Guest Lecture)
Can novels and, by extension, other works of art help us to think about money and trust in new ways? Could embracing alternative perspectives on trust and money help us to avoid climate catastrophe…
moneyontheleft.org
Animal Spirits and Public Promises: Phantom Beavers and the Politics of Monetary Design
Animal Spirits and Public Promises: Phantom Beavers and the Politics of Monetary Design
By Rob Hawkes There is a spectre haunting Nigel Farage. The spectre of a beaver. On 11 March 2026, the Bank of England announced that, following a public consultation, its next series of banknotes …
moneyontheleft.org
While standard critiques of the barter myth emphasize its lack of empirical support, this article advances a more capacious approach that situates the myth within the conceptual formation of economic modernity itself.
The Barter Myth & the Conceptual Foundations of Economic Modernity
Money on the Left: History, Theory, PracticeVol. 1, No. 2 (2026)ISSN 2833-051X The Barter Myth & the Conceptual Foundations of Economic Modernity By Jean-Michel Servet Abstract The barter myth—…
moneyontheleft.org
Mikhail Bakhtin: Carnival Laughter & Grotesque Realism
Mikhail Bakhtin: Carnival Laughter & Grotesque Realism
Will Beaman presents a lecture on the work and ideas of Mikhail Bakhtin. Drawing parallels with right wing attacks on contemporary drag performance and ballroom traditions, Will discusses Bakhtin’s…
moneyontheleft.org
“[B]y refusing to accept zero-sum logics of scarcity as inherent to monetary design, Democratic Public Finance keeps our movement’s horizon maximally open, experimental, and ambitious.”
Democratic Public Finance & the Future of Public Banking
By Scott Ferguson The following text was composed as an address for the conference Public Banking for Public Prosperity: A Declaration of Financial Independence, held at the Friends Center in Phila…
moneyontheleft.org
“[W]hen we free up our imaginations to think about monetary design in new ways, we … move beyond the austerity mindset that condemns millions to poverty, even in the wealthy societies of the global north, while treating extreme inequality & social exclusion as natural and inevitable facts of life.”
Reclaiming Money’s Public Powers for Imaginative Intersectional Politics
By Rob Hawkes Alongside my Money on the Left colleagues Will Beaman and Tyler Suksawat, I recently joined Gus Dunn-Hindle of the Maine People’s Alliance to discuss public money and public banking o…
moneyontheleft.org
Let’s learn the truth about Public Finance
Money on the Left@moneyontheleft.bsky.social · 6d agoIn this debut episode, the hosts lay out a bold vision for Democratic Public Finance (DPF), which rejects the defensive, austerity-driven mindset of “finding the money” and instead reclaims public finance as a problem of legal, social, and democratic design. moneyontheleft.org/2026/06/13/i...
Super grateful to @mainedsa.org for hosting me / @mmlusa.bsky.social & friends to talk about public money, public banking, and public housing as strategies for making life better in Maine (and across the US). Join us on 10/29! actionnetwork.org/events/publi...
Public Housing and Public Banking: Solutions and Implementation
Our last session in the public housing and public banking series is about the solutions and how we'd start getting there. We'll make the case for two things. First, a state public bank that lends to...
actionnetwork.org
I really appreciate all the expansive thinking and ideas for how to move forward at the local level. Let’s collectively “repudiate the fatal premise that revenue is the primordial origin of human capacity.”!
Money on the Left@moneyontheleft.bsky.social · last wk.✨ New! ✨ @videotroph.bsky.social shares his address for the upcoming conference Public Banking for Public Prosperity: A Declaration of Financial Independence, which will held at the Friends Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, October 22–24, 2026. Please read & share! 👩💻 🙌
"[O]ur vision for Democratic Public Finance offers a guiding ethos for collective activism and structural transformation."
Democratic Public Finance & the Future of Public Banking
By Scott Ferguson The following text was composed as an address for the conference Public Banking for Public Prosperity: A Declaration of Financial Independence, held at the Friends Center in Phila…
moneyontheleft.org