Josh Zumbrun: Trump Taps Kevin Hassett For Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers Mr. Hassett emerged as a candidate for the job several months ago, but the White House announced its intent to nominate him Friday.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/trump-taps-kevin-hassett-as-white-houses-chief-economist-1491599858
President Donald Trump said he would nominate Kevin Hassett, an expert in tax policy and one of the most prominent economists at the conservative American Enterprise Institute, to serve as the chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers.
The council’s chairman is generally considered the chief economist of the White House. The White House announced its intent to nominate Mr. Hassett in a statement Friday afternoon.
Mr. Hassett emerged as a candidate for the job several months ago, but his nomination wasn’t confirmed until Friday. The fate of Mr. Trump’s Council of Economic Advisers had been uncertain. How much Mr. Trump cared about advice from academic economists also came into question when he announced that his cabinet would no longer include the council’s chairman, as former President Barack Obama’s had.
Mr. Hassett, however, has a traditional pedigree for an elite academic economist. He received his doctorate in economics from the University of Pennsylvania, where he wrote a dissertation on applied econometrics–the difficult statistical work that underlies much economic research. He has published on a wide range of topics, with a particular focus on the benefits of tax cuts and the effects of economic uncertainty on business investment.
“He’s not just a standard-issue really good economist, he’s someone who knows how policy works,” said Glenn Hubbard, who chaired the CEA under President George W. Bush and has published research with Mr. Hassett. CONTINUE AT SITE
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