Being an honest public servant will always be a rewarding choice, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said Sunday in a speech at a pre-graduation ceremony at Princeton University amid months of unrelenting personal attacks from President Donald Trump.
“As you navigate the world of bright possibilities that awaits you, I urge you to take on the challenge and the opportunity to serve your fellow citizens,” Powell said. “Fifty years from now, you will want to be able to look in the mirror and know that you did what you thought was right, in every part of your life.”
“At the end of the day, your integrity is all you have. Guard it carefully,” he said.
Since taking the helm in 2018, Powell has steered the Fed through a litany of challenges, such as an economic crisis sowed by the Covid-19 pandemic, a historic bout of high inflation, and now, an erratic global trade war that has unsettled decision-makers across the world.
Powell has also dealt with direct and personal attacks on his character — a rarity for someone in charge of America’s central bank.
Trump has assailed Powell for not lowering interest rates quickly enough, accusing him of playing politics and describing him as a “fool” and “a major loser,” while also saying that his termination “cannot come fast enough.” Top administration officials have privately warned Trump of financial-market chaos if he were to proceed with sacking Powell, CNN previously reported.
Powell, for his part, has remained mum amid the criticism. In November, when asked if he’d step down if Trump asked him to, Powell said that’s “not permitted under the law.”
In recent weeks, Fed officials have said they will keep rates on hold, mostly because of lingering uncertainty over Trump’s tariff policies. Trump, meanwhile, hasn’t provided evidence to back up his claims that Fed officials are not cutting rates as a way to help Democrats.
In the latest salvo of the one-sided Trump-Powell clash, the president took to his social media platform again to call on Powell to lower borrowing costs.
“Too Late Powell, a man legendary for being Too Late, will probably blow it again – But who knows???” Trump wrote on May 17.
Earlier this month, the Fed kept its benchmark lending rate unchanged at a range of 4.25% to 4.5%, extending a holding pattern that began in January. Central bank officials have maintained that it’s best to wait to see how the US economy responds to Trump’s ever-evolving trade war before lowering rates.
“Everything’s always on the table. But I feel like the bar for me is a little higher for action in any direction while we’re waiting to get some clarity,” Chicago Fed President Austan Goolsbee told CNBC in a May 23 interview.
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