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CNN Business
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Kevin Hassett, one of President Donald Trump’s top economic advisers, said Goldman Sachs may shift its economic research to help Democrats ahead of the midterm elections.
Hassett told CNN’s Poppy Harlow on Tuesday that the Goldman Sachs economics team “almost looks like the Democratic opposition at times.”
Earlier, Harlow asked Hassett about a Goldman Sachs research report that warned that a 25% U.S. tariff on all Chinese imports could wipe out corporate profit growth in 2019.
Hassett said he had not read the research report but later criticized Goldman’s track record. Hassett claimed that his analysis of last year’s tax cuts was “really, really wrong and partisan in its timing.” He said Goldman Sachs’ analysis predicted that the tax cuts would “really hurt” the economy or would have a modest impact, but then revised its forecast upward after the tax cuts were passed.
“So maybe they’re just trying to make a partisan point before the election,” said Hassett, chairman of Trump’s Council of Economic Advisers.
Keep in mind that Goldman Sachs (GS), like other investment banks, charges clients for economic and market insights. Investors believe the research is nonpartisan.
Goldman Sachs declined to comment on the criticism.
It marks a new chapter in the Trump team’s love-hate relationship with Goldman Sachs, Wall Street’s most powerful firm.
Trump railed against Goldman Sachs during the 2016 presidential campaign. He claimed Goldman Sachs had “complete, complete control” over his rivals Hillary Clinton and Ted Cruz.
Trump’s closing ad featured an image of then-Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein, with the candidate’s voiceover denouncing the “global power structure” for preying on the American working class.
After the election, Trump changed course.
He appointed former Goldman Sachs partner Steve Mnuchin to the key role of Treasury secretary. Trump hired Gary Cohn, a registered Democrat who was president of Goldman Sachs at the time, to be the face of his economic team. (Cohen left earlier this year over trade differences.)
During the 2016 campaign, Clinton personally received $388,426 from Goldman Sachs, more than any other candidate, according to OpenSecrets. According to OpenSecrets, Trump received $5,607. Then again, in the 2016 federal races, Goldman Sachs employees generally contributed more to Republicans than Democrats.
Blankfein supported Clinton in the election.
After the election, however, Blankfein credited Trump with the U.S. economy’s takeoff.
“If the president hadn’t won and Hillary Clinton had won… I bet the economy would be higher today than it normally would be,” Blankfein told CNN in February.
Goldman Sachs veterans have gone on to work in both Republican and Democratic administrations. Robert Rubin, former co-chairman of Goldman Sachs, served as Treasury secretary under former President Bill Clinton.
Hank Paulson was chairman and chief executive of Goldman Sachs before leading former President George W. Bush’s Treasury Department during the 2008 financial crisis.