How Kevin Hassett Became a Fed Chair Contender

“For years, Kevin Hassett, an economist who advised the presidential campaigns of John McCain, George W. Bush and Mitt Romney, favored classic conservative economic principles. A longtime scholar at the right-leaning American Enterprise Institute, he promoted the idea that free trade was the path to national prosperity and argued that more immigration was good for the economy,” the New York Times reports.

“But as the director of President Trump’s National Economic Council, Mr. Hassett’s policy views are barely recognizable to those who have known him for decades. These days he supports tariffs and claims they are having little impact on consumer prices. He also says deportations are healthy for a labor market that has long relied on immigrants…”

“Mr. Hassett’s ability to adjust his policy positions as needed has allowed him to rise within the president’s orbit of advisers and helped put him in pole position to be Mr. Trump’s pick for the next chair of the Federal Reserve. As one of the front-runners on Mr. Trump’s shortlist to replace Jerome H. Powell, investors and policymakers have been straining to divine what Mr. Hassett truly believes, and if he wins the job, whether he will be able to endure political pressure from the White House to cut interest rates at all costs.”