US President Donald Trump’s administration has initiated a probe against the US Federal Reserve, with the Department of Justice issuing grand jury subpoenas threatening criminal indictment.
This comes months ahead of Fed chair Jerome Powell’s retirement in May, whom Trump has threatened to fire before his tenure ends. The Trump administration, over the past few months, has floated a few names who are the frontrunners in the race to become the person in charge of making economic decisions and framing policies for the United States. Of them, National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett has been mentioned time and again, and he could just be the person to succeed Powell and move the global markets from May.
Here is everything you need to know about Kevin Hassett —
Who is Kevin Hassett?
The current director of the National Economic Council under President Donald Trump, Kevin Hassett has emerged as one of the four top contenders for the position of the next Federal Reserve Chair.
An economist by training, Hassett holds a PhD from the University of Pennsylvania. He has also taught at top institutions such as the American Enterprise Institute.
The Fed chair-probable has been a Trump aide for years, working under him from 2017 to 2019, serving as the chair of the Council of Economic Advisers. He is known to back pro-growth tax cuts, criticism of inflationary pressure, as well as relaxed regulatory policies.
Recently, Hassett backed Trump’s idea of delivering cash to Americans from tariff revenues as a salve for cost-of-living worries. He said an improving economy has buoyed the chances of a plan to deliver one-time $2,000 rebate checks to many Americans.
Trump has time and again pushed for lower monetary policy rates. “I'll soon announce our next chairman of the Federal Reserve, someone who believes in lower interest rates, by a lot, and mortgage payments will be coming down even further,” the US president had said in a December address.
And Hassett's agenda aligns with that of the POTUS, with the economist publicly arguing for a more accommodating monetary policy.
However, he has not publicly agreed to push the central bank to slash rates as low as Trump has demanded, in some cases to as low as a crisis-level 1%.
When will Donald Trump announce the new Fed chair?
Trump has been indicating for weeks that he will announce the new Fed Chair ‘soon’, but so far, such a decision has not been made.
Recently, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said he anticipates that President Donald Trump will decide on a successor to Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell as early as January.
