Hassett beclowns himself. Coarseness in Illinois.
Hassett beclowns himself
Kevin Hassett who at one time was being considered to be chairman of the Federal Reserve has returned to his old job as chairman of the White House’s National Economic Council. Now back in the fold, Hassett, who is clearly a Trump-pet, lashed out at the results of a research paper from the New York Fed simply because it found that Trump’s tariffs were mainly being borne by American firms and consumers. This, of course, is only a surprise to Trump and those who are paid by him. Mind you this paper merely corroborates the findings of other researchers in both the US and abroad. Hassett, ignoring all the prior results called the New York Fed paper “an embarrassment” and “the worst paper I’ve ever seen in the history of the Federal Reserve System.” Actually Hassett is the embarrassment and the Fed must be overjoyed that he is not going to be next chairman. Hassett even said “The people associated with this paper should presumably be disciplined.” Good grief. The man’s an idiot.
The paper said “Our results imply that U.S. import prices for goods subject to the average tariff increased by 11 percent … more than those for goods not subject to tariffs. U.S. firms and consumers continue to bear the bulk of the economic burden of the high tariffs imposed in 2025.”
Here is the paper
Hassett looks foolish. If he disputes the findings then all he has to do is to produce empirical research that contradicts the conclusions of the paper. He has not done that. Doesn’t he have a staff of economists that can produce contra results for him?
White House spokesperson Kush Desai (another Trump-pet) said “Director Hassett’s comments yesterday were clearly a call for the Fed to return to the practice of upholding the highest of academic standards. This product fell short of that.” Of course, Desai is reading from a script and hasn’t a clue what he is talking about. Neither does Hassett.
But maybe the quality of Hassett’s work on the Council is reflected in the president’s boasting on his social media platform that he has reduced the US trade deficit by 78 percent because of his tariffs. “THE UNITED STATES TRADE DEFICIT HAS BEEN REDUCED BY 78% BECAUSE OF THE TARIFFS BEING CHARGED TO OTHER COMPANIES AND COUNTRIES. IT WILL GO INTO POSITIVE TERRITORY DURING THIS YEAR, FOR THE FIRST TIME IN MANY DECADES. THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION TO THIS MATTER!” Seventy-eight percent? How can that been when the figures actually show that the deficit declined by only 0.2 percent rather than Trump’s 78 percent? The deficit in goods was a record $1.2 trillion. The only reason it was an overall decline, however slight, was that we had also a record high in exports of goods but especially of services. Trump is demonstrating how to lie with statistics. BTW, Trump boasts that by next year we won’t even have a trade deficit. Now, if you believe that, I’ve got a bridge I’d like to sell you.
Cover your ears!
Can someone be elected to the Senate whose only message is F-Trump? Well in Illinois that is being field tested. The current lieutenant governor Juliana Stratton is running to replace the retiring Dick Durbin. She is the latest in the trend I have talked about in the past – politicians being foul mouthed. In the first ad she released, it only carries one message, F-Trump. Oh, and she says that she will abolish ICE (single handedly I presume). Here is the ad – cover the children’s ears.
The latest polls show Stratton running a distant second to Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi (say that three times!) despite being endorsed by Illinois governor Pritzker. Let’s hope it stays that way.
haroldblackphd.com 