The Paradox of Debt: A New Path to Prosperity Without Crisis
He previously served Secretary of Banking and Securities for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania
The Paradox of Debt: A New Path to Prosperity Without Crisis
By
PUBLIUS SPECIAL GUEST: Richard Vague, author of The Paradox of Debt: A New Path to Prosperity Without Crisis.
When we talk about debt and its impact on our economy, we almost always mean “government debt.” However, this is only a small part of the picture: individuals, private firms, and households owe trillions, and these private debts are vital to understanding the economy.
In this iconoclastic book, Richard Vague examines the assets, liabilities, and incomes of the entire country, private and public sector, to reveal its net worth. His holistic analysis shows that the real factor that drives both financial crises and spiraling inequality―but also, paradoxically, economic growth―is ever rising private debt. The paradox is that while debt is essential and our economy relies on it, it also brings instability unless it is periodically deleveraged―and that is very hard to do. It can, however, be carefully managed, and Vague ends the book by showing how to do so in policy areas ranging from trade and housing to financial policy and student debt.
Underpinned by pioneering data analysis and the author’s lifetime of experience in the financial world, this book is essential for anyone who wants to understand the deep, underlying dynamics of the American economy.
PLUG BOOK: The Paradox of Debt: A New Path to Prosperity Without Crisis
BIO: Richard Vague, author of The Paradox of Debt: A New Path to Prosperity Without Crisis, is also author of The Case for a Debt Jubilee, a policy exploration of debt relief, An Illustrated Business History of the United States, the story of our nation’s business progress, A Brief History of Doom, a chronicle of major world financial crises, and The Next Economic Disaster, a book with a new approach for predicting and preventing financial crises.
Richard also serves as managing partner of Gabriel Investments, an early-stage venture capital company.
He previously served Secretary of Banking and Securities for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. as Chair of the Pennsylvania Housing Finance Agency, and as board trustee for Pennsylvania’s two largest pension funds, the Public-School Employees' Retirement System and the Pennsylvania State Employees' Retirement System.
He was also co-founder, Chairman and CEO of Energy Plus, an electricity and natural gas supply company, and co-founder and CEO of two consumer credit card banks, First USA and Juniper Bank.
Richard currently serves on the University of Pennsylvania Board of Trustees and the Penn Medicine Board of Trustees, and on a number of business boards. He is chair of the University of Pennsylvania Press, and chair of the Innovation Advisory Board of the Abramson Cancer Center. He also serves on the Governing Board of the Institute for New Economic Thinking and the board of the Fund for the School District of Philadelphia.
He is the founder of the economic data service Tychos (tychosgroup.org), which specializes in analyzing private debt trends, and the email newsletter service Delanceyplace.com, which focuses on non-fiction literature.
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Richard Vague, author of The Paradox of Debt: A New Path to Prosperity Without Crisis.