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    Senior Member Judy's Avatar
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    Meet Trump's newest economic adviser

    Meet Trump's newest economic adviser

    by Heather Long
    April 10, 2017: 2:15 PM ET

    Trump vows at least 3.5% economic growth

    President Trump has finally nominated a chief economist. It's another sign the White House is getting serious about tax reform.

    Trump tapped economist and tax expert Kevin Hassett to be the head of the White House Council of Economic Advisers in an announcement late Friday. The position has to go through a Senate confirmation. Hassett is a leading conservative expert on taxes. He's advised the presidential campaigns of John McCain, George W. Bush and Mitt Romney.

    "If the Trump administration does a big push on tax reform, then I would expect Kevin to play a very large role," says Michael Strain, who has been a colleague of Hassett's for years at the American Enterprise Institute, a right-leaning think tank in Washington.

    The appointment of Hassett has been praised in D.C., on Wall Street and in academic circles. He's seen as a moderate Republican who will align more with the Goldman Sachs crowd in the White House (Gary Cohn and Steve Mnuchin), not the hard-liners like Steve Bannon and Peter Navarro, who are known to support massive barriers on trade.

    "This is starting to look like a center-right administration; the Goldman Sachs faction has won, and a pro-business climate is a good thing for the markets," Greg Valliere, chief strategist at Horizon Investments and a frequent political commentator, wrote in his Monday note.

    In addition to being a leading economic voice in D.C., Hassett is also known as a friendly guy. He loves gummy worms and chocolates. Strain, his colleague at AEI, says Hassett would often go to a chocolate shop on Connecticut Avenue and bring back chocolates for everyone on the floor.

    It's that kind of old-fashioned diplomacy that may be needed in the White House as the debate picks up over whether to put tariffs on foreign countries or companies. Hassett is seen as an advocate for free trade.

    Can Trump double economic growth?

    Trump has made big promises to his supporters on the economy. He's vowed to create 25 million jobs (more than any other U.S. president) and double growth. (The U.S. averaged about 2% GDP growth a year under President Obama. Trump says he can do 4%.)

    Hassett told CNNMoney in an interview in the early days of the 2016 presidential race that 4% economic growth could be achieved with the right tax and budget reforms.

    "Anyone promising 4% growth would be a mistake," Hassett said. "But it's not impossible."

    Hassett earned his PhD in economics from the University of Pennsylvania. He's had a long career, starting as an economics professor at Columbia University. After that, we went on to serve as an economist at the Federal Reserve, a policy adviser to political candidates and a consultant to the U.S. Treasury.

    While he's considered an expert on tax policy, he also co-authored a book in 1999 -- the height of the dot-com bubble -- called "Dow 36,000," which argued stocks were cheap because the U.S. was on the verge of even more gains for the economy and markets. The Dow topped out at just over 11,700 before the bubble burst.

    Hassett praised by liberal economists

    Despite his ill-timed call on the stock market, Hassett is taken seriously in both the academic world and in the Washington policy world. Liberal economists like Jason Furman, Obama's CEA chair, have praised Hassett's appointment as an "excellent pick."

    "I think Kevin is a very talented economist, particularly given the areas the Trump administration is working on," says Glenn Hubbard, the dean of Columbia Business School and former head of the Council of Economic Advisers under President George W. Bush.

    The CEA, as its known, is basically an in house think tank for the White House. It's been around since 1946 and is usually staffed with PhD economists who build models to try to predict how the economy is doing and what will happen if the president proposes a certain policy idea.

    "Economists offer a perspective in the debate that presidents won't always agree with, but you need to hear what economists have to say," Hubbard told CNNMoney. The CEA also puts out the Economic Report of the President every year.

    http://money.cnn.com/2017/04/10/news...adviser-trump/
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    Senior Member Judy's Avatar
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    It sounds like it was his expertise on taxes to help with tax reform is the reason he was chosen, because the Congress is completely befuddled on what to do. I wish he was a FairTax believer, but he probably isn't, but maybe!!



    But everyone worried that because he's more a free trader than a nationalist, shouldn't worry. Our nationalist, protected trade guy, is Donald Trump backed up by Wilbur Ross at Commerce and even Mnuchin in Treasury. We've got that base and immigration reduction covered elsewhere.

    It's about a driver to help push tax reform through, seems to me, because reducing that corporate and business rate down to 15% and even getting rid of capital gains tax altogether (maybe Rubio can earn his pay with that one when it gets to the Senate), is key to economic growth and job creation. Trump's our protected trade and borders fanatic, he can handle those on his own. Tax reform is more complicated when they're trying tweek the income tax code, and there's really no way to do it, when reduce for one, you leave a hole that's filled by someone else or deficit spending and more debt. The income tax doesn't work, it hasn't worked in 104 years and there's no way to make it work. It's picking winners and losers at every turn, something "conservatives" should hate but for some reason many still cling to. It's just plain befuddling why that is.
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    MW
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    The appointment of Hassett has been praised in D.C., on Wall Street and in academic circles. He's seen as a moderate Republican who will align more with the Goldman Sachs crowd in the White House (Gary Cohn and Steve Mnuchin), not the hard-liners like Steve Bannon and Peter Navarro, who are known to support massive barriers on trade.
    Sounds like another 'gator' in the swamp to me.

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    Senior Member Judy's Avatar
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    When it comes to taxes, the Goldman Sachs crowd is usually the right crowd you want to align with. You don't want to align with Goldman Sachs on other things like trade and immigration, but on taxes and regulations, for example, that's okay. We need a healthy solid stock market because that's where our companies, our good ones, raise the capital to invest in our country, that's why you want Wall Street happy with taxes and regulations. Trump has our issues of trade and immigration covered by himself and his own long-held views.

    I wish Wall Street would force itself to understand the FairTax, the problem with that is most of the people in companies who coordinate their stock earnings are accountants and accountants love the income tax because it's job security for their profession. Less tax work, less need for accountants. But I point out to them, why wouldn't you prefer using your skills to COUNT THE MONEY, instead of fill out stupid forms for the government? The FairTax will create its own job market for accountants counting, reporting, managing and investing all the money the companies are going to earn and then reinvest under the FairTax. Some are starting to get it!!

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    MW
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    I think I'm sensing a little hypocrisy here. In the past you have obliterated anyone that had any association with Goldman Sachs. Don't deny it.

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    Senior Member Judy's Avatar
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    It's true because of their positions on trade and immigration that wrongfully influenced former Presidents. This President is already firmly a believer of protected trade, has been his entire life, ran for President to shake sense into the country on this issue, and strong immigration controls. Also, I was opposed to candidates who took Goldman-Sachs money. Trump didn't do that. So our government can benefit from the knowledge of Goldman-Sachs which is enormous without being influenced by bad policies they often pass around in return for donations they make. Trump is free from that. In fact, in another year, he'll convince Goldman-Sachs they've had it all wrong all along on trade and immigration. I mean he may have already done so judging by the stock market.
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    I'm sure they don't like regulations and taxes - for them, anyway. I'm not sure it matters to them what the rest of us pay.

    Truly, I'm not sure we can judge our economy by Wall Street.

    Ronald Reagan did a lot of things I didn't like, but he once said,

    "Things are fine on Wall Street - not just so great on Main Street."

    What is good for Wall Street is not always good for the rest of the country.

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