Trump adviser Hassett suggests New York Fed researchers be punished for tariffs argument

By Michael S. Derby

Feb 18 (Reuters) - Kevin Hassett, a top economic adviser to President Donald Trump, on Wednesday said those behind a New York Federal Reserve research paper that argued the costs of tariffs are borne mostly by Americans should be punished for what he described as shoddy scholarship.

"The paper is an embarrassment," Hassett said in a CNBC interview. "It's, I think, the worst paper I've ever seen in the history of the Federal Reserve System" and "the people associated with this paper should presumably be disciplined" for writing it.

The paper argued that Trump's large import tax increases are borne by those in the U.S., rather than by foreigners, as the administration has long argued. The findings in the New York Fed paper have been echoed elsewhere.

Hassett, the director of the White House's National Economic Council, said the New York Fed researchers have "put out a conclusion which has created a lot of news that's highly partisan based on analysis that wouldn't be accepted in a first semester econ class."

The New York Fed did not immediately respond to a request for comment.