Earlier this week I was listening to an interview with Jared Bernstein, Chief Economist to Vice President Biden. The interview with Neil Cavuto of Fox News, was noteworthy by virtue the answers Jared was providing to some fairly straight forward financial questions. This provoked me to go to Wikipedia to look into his credentials and there I found my answer. Jared Bernstein is a handsome and articulate gentlemen, but he is in the end a social worker. Undergraduate in music (Base), Masters in Social work and Ph.D. in Social Welfare. The Wikipedia entry ends with : ”he has no degree in Economics”, yet he is presented as an Economist.
I mention this with no disrespect to Dr. Bernstein, but that words have meaning, and a Ph. D. in Social Welfare doesn’t mean a Ph.D. in Economics or that Jared knows the difference between an income statement and a balance sheet, or the cost consiquences of the policy decissions he and his boss may be suggesting. This is deceteful and misleading.
