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WASHINGTON — <\/span>President Donald Trump’s top economist on Wednesday urged that Federal Reserve economists be punished for research last week<\/a> that showed American companies and consumers paying for nearly all the new tariffs imposed by the White House last year. <\/p>\n \u201cThe paper is an embarrassment,” Kevin Hassett, director of the White House’s National Economic Council said in an interview on CNBC. “It\u2019s the worst paper I\u2019ve ever seen in the history of the Federal Reserve system. The people associated with this paper should presumably be disciplined.\u201d<\/p>\n Hassett’s comments represent the latest attack from the Trump administration<\/a> on the Fed, which has traditionally been independent<\/a> of day-to-day politics. It also suggests the White House remains sensitive<\/a> to concerns about rising costs for groceries, housing, and big-ticket items such as furniture and cars, as surveys show Americans remain disgruntled about the economy.<\/p>\n Several other studies have reached similar conclusions as the New York Fed, including one by economists at Harvard and the University of Chicago;<\/a> a separate report by the Kiel Institut<\/a>, a German think tank; and a report<\/a> last week by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office. <\/p>\n