Kevin Hassett's Rate Cut Inflation Inferno

Submitted by QTR's Fringe Finance

News broke today that Kevin Hassett has suddenly emerged as the leading contender to replace Jerome Powell as Fed Chair, according to Bloomberg reporting and a sharp move in betting markets. His odds on Polymarket jumped to fifty percent, and administration officials have begun signaling that President Trump may announce his choice before Christmas.

In my view, this development is more than just another personnel rumor drifting through Washington. It looks and feels like a deliberate test balloon to gauge how investors and the public react to the idea of a Fed Chair explicitly aligned with the White House’s push for rapid rate cuts. And based on the initial market reaction, I believe investors are responding with the usual reflexive enthusiasm for easier policy, without fully absorbing what this shift might actually signal.

Hassett’s rise is not coming out of nowhere. He is head of the National Economic Council, a trusted Trump ally, and someone who has repeatedly said the Fed should already be cutting rates. He told Fox News on November 20 that he would “be cutting rates right now,” and Bloomberg’s reporting says outright that he is viewed as a candidate who would bring “the president’s approach to interest rate cutting to the Fed.” If accurate, this is not normal central bank succession chatter; this is the White House probing how far it can push the line on Fed independence.

Context matters. Trump has spent years publicly attacking Powell, complaining that the Fed was too slow to cut, musing about firing him, and treating the central bank as a political arm that simply refuses to follow instructions. The White House is even pursuing litigation over Trump’s attempted firing of Governor Lisa Cook. Against that backdrop, I believe the elevation of Hassett should be read as...(READ THIS FULL COLUMN HERE).