Those who champion the trickle-down theory of economics are correct—except for one detail: it is debt that has been trickling down, not wealth.
Richard Vague
A BRIEF INTRODUCTION
About Richard
RICHARD VAGUE served most recently as Secretary of Banking and Securities for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. As the author of The Paradox of Debt (2023), 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 socioeconomic equality through training and asset ownership programs to support underserved communities.
ECONOMIC RESEARCHER
Richard Wade Vague is an American businessperson,
venture capitalist, author, and Secretary of Banking and Securities for the commonwealth of Pennsylvania.
THOUGHT LEADER
As the author of 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.
SOLUTION PROVIDER
Tychos Analytics Group, DebtEconomics.Org, and DelanceyPlace.com are three organizations that Richard runs to help consumers understand debt, align themselves proactively, and have a better understanding of what the government must do to fix the nation's wealth gap issue.
Richard currently serves as managing partner of Gabriel Investments, an early stage venture capital company. Vague was also cofounder, Chairman and CEO of Energy Plus, an electricity and natural gas supply company operating in states throughout the U.S. that was sold to NRG Energy in 2011, and also co-founder and CEO of two banks—First USA, a consumer-oriented bank which grew to be the largest Visa issuer in the industry and which was sold to Bank One in 1997, and Juniper, a bank that was the fastest growing credit card issuer in its era, which was sold to Barclays PLC in 2004.
