Richard Vague is Secretary of Banking and Securities for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Before that he was the co-founder and CEO of two banks, managing partner of Gabriel Investments, an early-stage venture capital company, and co-founder, chairman and CEO of Energy Plus, an electricity and natural gas supply company. His previous books include A Brief History of Doom and The Case for a Debt Jubilee.
‘Richard Vague is this century's incarnation of Walter Bagehot, Charles Mackay, and Charles Kindelberger, all in one: a successful banker, brilliant author, and contrarian economist with an encyclopaedic knowledge of the history of money and banking, and the parts of economic theory that are worth knowing - above all the contributions of Hyman Minsky. No-one else comes close to his blend of professional experience, oratorical flair, and critical insights’ - Steve Keen, author of Debunking Economics and Can We Avoid Another Financial Crisis? ‘Richard Vague is a rare combination of scholar, practitioner and communicator. In The Paradox of Debt he provides an essential guide to the modern economy that can be read with profit and pleasure by citizens and policymakers alike’ - Michael Lind, author of The New Class War and Land of Promise: An Economic History of the United States