The Paradox of Debt | Richard Vague | TEDxCapeMay

In this iconoclastic talk, 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. Richard Vague served as 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 is the author of The Paradox of Debt, which presents a new view of macroeconomics and will be released in July 2023. He authored 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 new approach for predicting and preventing financial crises. Richard is chair of the University of Pennsylvania Press, and chair of the Innovation Advisory Board of the Abramson Cancer Center and serves on the Governing Board of the Institute for New Economic Thinking. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at https://www.ted.com/tedx