Jerome Powell Speaks At Princeton University – Urges Civil Service & Integrity

As one of the last bastions of political decorum and reason within the greater expanse of the Federal government, the Fed Chair, Jerome Powell, urged Princeton Baccalaureate graduates to consider integrity and civil service [AP]. Under most circumstances, the speech and appearance would be notable. However, with the Supreme Court carving out a special legal standing for the FED, this speech seems very impactful and prescient because of the undue amount of pressure from Donald John Trump to pressure Powell into lowering interest rates.

What Did Jerome Powell Say?

Even for someone as jaded as myself, the speech was inspiring and spoke to grander days in which officials did not publicly assert their right to enrich themselves nor did their followers justify them. In the speech, Powell emphasized the fundamental importance of integrity, stating “integrity is all we have—guard it carefully” and moving forward on the idea that graduates should take chances even at the risk of failure.

Curiously, Powell quipped that he approached his studies casually and did not seek out economics.

Jerome Powell, chair of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, delivers remarks at Princeton’s Baccalaureate service for the Class of 2025. Powell earned his bachelor’s degree in politics from Princeton in 1975.

The speech also included a thoughtful reflection on the FED’s intervention during the crisis around Covid lockdowns. “With little warning, economies came to a hard stop” [..] “the world looked to the Fed as a first responder”, in reference to the FED’s rate cuts and purchasing of treasuries along with mortgage backed securities. The liquidity did prop up the economy in 2020 amidst panic selling and cash hoarding shortly after lockdowns. Nevertheless, that FED intervention led to what some felt was overvalued assets, like mortgages connected to homes and equities.

Now, the Trump administration is looking at Fauci-like amount of popularity with respect to Powell. Worse still (for Trump, the Supreme Court issued a significant ruling on May 22, 2025, exempting the Federal Reserve from the ability of Trump to dismiss agency leaders. This could be due to the fact that the Supreme Court may not want to impose a ruling that goes contrary to the ‘Federal Reserve Act’. Specifically, the Federal Reserve Act requires “cause” for removing Fed board members. Thus, if Trump’s ’cause’ is that the fed is not acting sufficiently sycophantic, that would actually affirm that they are conducting themselves correctly.