Powell defends the Federal Reserve in speech in the middle of the rush of attacks by Trump

Washington – The chairman of the Federal Reserve, Jerome Powell, defended the central bank's reaction to the Covid 19-Pandemie Sunday in a opening speech by Princeton University, in which he also praised government employees and US universities, both of which were attacked by the Trump management.

The Fed Chairman and the Central Bank have been subject to extensive criticism by President Trump and the former governor of Fed, Kevin Warsh, a potential successor to Powell.

In his speech, Powell, who found that he graduated in Princeton 50 years ago, defended the decision of the Central Bank to reduce its key interest rate to almost zero in response to pandemic closure. An asset purchase program also started in which trillion dollars were bought in financial bonds and mortgage-secured securities and that long-term interest rates should keep low.

“With little warning, the economies all over the world came to a tough stop,” said Powell, told the pandemic. “The possibility of a long, heavy, global depression stared into our faces. Everyone turned to the government and in particular to the Federal Reserve as an important first aid.”

Powell has honored long -time government employees for praise: “Fed career officers who are veterans of previous crises occurred and said:” We have that, “he said.

Trump exposed Powell an attack current for months because the FED kept its clothing unchanged this year after cutting it three times in late 2024. The president claimed that there is “no inflation”, so the Fed should reduce the credit costs. Powell has found that inflation remains.

This month Trump described Powell as “fools” because he did not lower prices and last week the Fed's chair “too late Powell”.

Powell did not respond to Trump's attacks, an attitude that previously supported him among Republicans on the Capitol Hill.

In his Sunday speech, he defended the American universities, which were heavily attacked by the Trump administration, as research grants and other funds for several universities from the IVY League, including Princeton.

“Our large universities are the envy of the world and a decisive national financial value,” said Powell. “Take a look around. I ask you not to take any of it for granted.”

At the end of the last month, Warsh, who acted as one of the Fed governors from 2006 to 2011, popped the central bank and said that inflation increased at its highest level of four decades in 2022. Warsh is considered the leading candidate for the next Fed chair when Powell's term ends next May.

“Every time the FED takes action, the more it expands its size and scope,” Warsh said in a speech on the sidelines of the Spring -Meetings of the International Monetary Fund. “More debts are accumulated … more institutional lines are exceeded, and the Fed is forced to act more aggressively next time.”

The FED does not issue debts, but Warsh and other FED critics argue that the purchase of financial bonds from the federal government enables more loans and more.

Powell has recognized that the FED could have been moved faster after the start of inflation in 2021 to increase interest rates. On Sunday he defended the Fed's pandemic.

“We avoided the worst results through the joint efforts of many,” said Powell. “It is difficult to imagine that the pressure that people are exposed to in such a time. Their collective efforts have saved our economy, and the career involved earn our respect and thanks. It is my great honor to serve next to them.”

Rugaber writes for the Associated Press.