Hassett Urges Discipline for Fed Tariff Study Authors

Kevin Hassett, director of the White House National Economic Council, called on Wednesday for Federal Reserve researchers to face discipline over a study that concluded U.S. firms and consumers absorbed nearly 90 percent of the costs from tariffs imposed in 2025. The remarks, made during a CNBC interview, highlighted ongoing tensions between the Trump administration and the central bank.

The New York Federal Reserve's analysis, published on its Liberty Street Economics blog, examined import prices and found that tariffs led to an 11 percent higher increase for affected goods compared to those not subject to duties. Researchers, including the head of the New York Fed's labor and product markets division and a Columbia University professor, stated that the findings align with prior studies on tariff impacts. They noted that while the U.S. share of the burden dipped slightly by year's end, domestic buyers continued to shoulder the majority of the economic load in the first eight months of 2025.

Hassett dismissed the paper as "an embarrassment" and "the worst paper I've ever seen in the history of the Federal Reserve System." He argued that its methodology overlooked key factors,...