The famously tight-lipped former Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell said on Sunday that the central bank was undergoing a “stress test,” like many other U.S. institutions (universities, Congress, the courts, and the Constitution), and warned that “the Fed’s credibility would be lost . . . if any administration finds a way to remove Fed officials over policy differences.”
Powell made the remarks while receiving the John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award at the JFK Library in Boston for his commitment to protecting the Federal Reserve’s independence.
That independence, he said, is critical to the stability of the global economy, “despite years of personal attacks and threats from the highest levels of government . . . and relentless political pressure and unprecedented attempts to influence [him].”
President Trump frequently clashed with Powell over cutting interest rates. The Fed chair was personally subjected to a Justice Department investigation—over the cost of building renovations—that has since been dropped and passed to the Fed’s inspector general.
After an eight-year run, Powell took the unusual step this month of remaining on the Fed’s governing board even after stepping aside as chair.
“Partisan political differences are normal—indeed essential—in a thriving democracy,” Powell said. “But we ought to be united in our commitment to the higher principles that define our nation. Chief among them is respect for the rule of law. As John Adams wrote, ours is ‘a government of laws and not of men.’”
Powell also echoed the philosopher Edmund Burke’s warning that democratic institutions “take much time, effort, and patience to build but can be torn down all too quickly.”
People of Minnesota’s Twin Cities also honored
At the event on Sunday, the people of Minnesota’s Twin Cities were also honored.
They received an award for “risking their lives to protect their neighbors and immigrant community members from an unprecedented federal law enforcement operation, peacefully defending the human rights and values that serve as the foundation of our Constitutional democracy.”
Some 3,000 federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents descended on Minneapolis and St. Paul in a large-scale immigration raid that culminated in the arrests of about 4,000 people and the killings of Renee Nicole Good and Alex Pretti, and triggered mass protests.
Four community leaders accepted the award on the cities’ behalf:
- Imam Yusuf Abdulle, cofounder of Somali American Leadership Table,
- Natalie Ehret, founder of Haven Watch, a group supporting people after they were released from ICE detention,
- Carolina Ortiz, associate executive director, COPAL (Communities Organizing Latine Power and Action), and
- Zena Stenvik, superintendent at Columbia Heights Public Schools, who helped mobilize school staff and community members to protect students after a number were targeted and detained by armed ICE agents.
President Kennedy’s daughter, Caroline Kennedy, and his grandson, Jack Schlossberg, who is running for Congress in New York’s 12th District, presented the award. It’s named after President Kennedy’s 1957 Pulitzer Prize-winning book, Profiles in Courage, which tells the stories of eight U.S. senators who risked their careers by taking principled stands for unpopular positions.
Previous award recipients include leaders in both political parties, Republicans and Democrats. Among these are the former vice president, Mike Pence; the former presidents Barack Obama and George H. W. Bush; Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy; the former Republican congresswoman Liz Cheney; and the former Democratic congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords.
