Michael R. Strain, Columnist

Bipartisanship Wins a Round at the White House

Kevin Hassett, Trump's newest economics aide, is known for openness to ideas.

September 17, 2017 at 2:00 PM UTC

Michael R. Strain is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist. He is director of economic policy studies and Arthur F. Burns Scholar in Political Economy at the American Enterprise Institute. He is the author of “The American Dream Is Not Dead: (But Populism Could Kill It).”

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Photographer: Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg

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Economists of all political views breathed a sigh of relief and raised a glass in celebration when Kevin Hassett was confirmed last week as chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers.

Hassett, my former American Enterprise Institute colleague, is widely respected, as evidenced by a June letter of support for his nomination signed by 44 leading economists from both the left and right. The signatories include 14 former CEA chairs — every living CEA chair except Janet Yellen (understandable given her current job as chair of the U.S. Federal Reserve) and Joseph Stiglitz, the liberal economist from Columbia University — and two former Fed chairmen. (I am one of the signatories.)