The Revolution Will Be Financialized: Right-Populism and the Evolution of the U.S. Parallel Economy Movement, 2021-2025

• In Event: Religion and Populism (Co-sponsored by Political Sociology Section)

Abstract

Historically, populist ideologies have been hostile toward finance and financial institutions, depicting finance as a tool that elites use to oppress the masses. In 2021, however, members of the U.S. far right started a movement they called the Parallel Economy, founding banks, retailers, and digital payment platforms that duplicated mainstream economic institutions but kept money among fellow right-wing populists. Participants in the Parallel Economy sought to avoid giving money to mainstream banks and corporations that could de-bank or de-list them for violating key terms and conditions, including hate-speech policies or restrictions on what services could be rendered. How did right-wing populism become a salient feature in finance? To answer this question, this study introduces the concept of right-populist finance: financial services that, according to their providers, advance the political goals of right-wing populism. Through a case study of PublicSquare—a conservative Christian e-commerce platform central to the Parallel Economy movement, which rebranded itself as a financial technology company in 2025—the authors reveal a set of rhetorical strategies that members of the far right used to treat finance as embedded within, rather than hostile to, right-wing populist political projects. The authors also conduct a social network analysis of the Parallel Economy’s most important participants to show that, in practice, the Parallel Economy had a variety of connections to mainstream financial elites, revealing limits to how effective right-populist finance can be as a durable, structural shift in the financial and political landscape.

Authors

• Mahesh Somashekhar, University of Illinois-Chicago

• Ryan Matsuura Calder, Johns Hopkins University

• Ian Kennedy, University of Illinois-Chicago