As the author of The Case for a Debt Jubilee (2021), A Brief History of Doom (2019), and The Next Economic Disaster (2014), Richard Vague established himself as a clear and independent voice in the ongoing conversation about the role of private sector debt in the global economy.  

 

His Illustrated Business History of the United States offers a more general audience a clear-eyed view of 250 years of wealth creation and the people and personalities who drove that growth — and hold it today. And now, Richard’s new book, The Paradox of Debt, offers a compelling case and policy recommendations for new forms of debt monitoring, restructuring, and means to create greater socio-economic equality through training and asset ownership programs to support underserved communities.

 

Following a career that has spanned fields as varied as banking and energy, credit, and the arts, Richard has served since 2020 as Secretary of Banking and Securities for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.

Richard also 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 FringeArts Philadelphia, 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. 

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Vague is the founder of the economic data services Tychos (tychosgroup.org) and Debt Economics (debteconomics.org) as well as the email newsletter service Delanceyplace.com, which focuses on nonfiction literature.