Washington DC - White House economic adviser Kevin Hassett said Wednesday that the authors of a New York Federal Reserve study should "be disciplined," after their paper found US firms and consumers shouldering most of the economic burden from tariffs.

"The paper is an embarrassment," Hassett told CNBC in an interview. "It's, I think, the worst paper I've ever seen in the history of the Federal Reserve system."

"The people associated with this paper should presumably be disciplined," added Hassett, who was previously considered by President Donald Trump as a potential successor to Jerome Powell to lead the US central bank.

The report published on February 12 found that nearly 90% of the tariffs' economic burden fell on American companies and consumers.

It also noted that the average tariff rate on US imports rose from 2.6% to 13% over the course of 2025.

Wide-ranging tariffs and the ability to threaten new levies on trading partners have been a key part of Trump's economic agenda.

"Tariffs have given us great national security because the mere mention of the word has countries agreeing to our strongest wishes," Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform last week.

But even though Trump's tariffs have not sparked a broad surge in overall consumer prices, US companies have reported higher business costs. Some have passed on these costs partially to customers as a result.

Hassett criticized the New York Fed's paper on Wednesday, saying, "What they've done is they've put out a conclusion which has created a lot of news that's highly partisan based on analysis that wouldn't be accepted in a first-semester econ class."

Hassett insisted that "prices have gone down" with inflation cooling over time, and argued that consumers have been made better off by Trump's tariffs.

"I can't imagine who signed off on it," he told CNBC of the report.

The US Consumer Price Index, a key inflation gauge, was cooling in the first four months of 2025 before rising again in the months after Trump's new tariffs took hold.

As of January, consumer inflation was up 2.4% on a year-on-year basis.