Doctor? No.
I meant to post this fascinating article from Barron's Online about that supposed paragon of intellectual rigor, Alan Greenspan.
At most institutions of higher learning, doctoral theses are available to the public for a host of reasons, not the least of which is that they are supposed to advance the understanding of one or more problems in a particular field. But when your name is Alan Greenspan, things are apparently different.
Greenspan, who left the Fed in 2006 but is still consulted as a genius, might find a metallic exoskeleton exceptionally comforting come May, when the University of Texas Press publishes an unflattering book by Robert Auerbach entitled Deception and Abuse at the Fed: Henry B. Gonzalez Battles Alan Greenspan's Bank.
Auerbach, a veteran Fed basher, portrays Greenspan as a real-life Professor Marvel—who, through double-talk or "garblement," transformed himself into a mighty economic wizard á la Oz. Auerbach strongly implies that Greenspan's 1977 Ph.D. from New York University was obtained in a few months with little more rigor than a matchbook-cover art degree and that Greenspan has kept his Ph.D. thesis secret in order to protect his vaunted academic reputation.
Greenspan appears to have taken only a few months to obtain his NYU doctorate in '77.
Although Auerbach's evidence is circumstantial, it certainly is provocative. For years, NYU told the public that, at Greenspan's request, the thesis was locked away from public view in a vault at its Bobst Library. Auerbach himself was told this in January 2004 when he tried to obtain a copy.
"Normally," writes Auerbach, "a Ph.D. dissertation in a field such as economics must be in a form sophisticated enough to be usable in research, must make a contribution to the existing body of knowledge, and must be original, unpublished work. When approved, the Ph.D. candidate is normally required to supply a bound copy of the dissertation, which remains in the university's library and is available for future researchers to consult."
Labels: Alan Greenspan, Robert Auerbach, stupid academic tricks
