摘要：据美联社2025年5月26日最新报道，美联储主席杰罗姆·鲍威尔周日在普林斯顿大学的毕业典礼演讲中为美联储就对新冠疫情的措施进行辩护，并赞扬同样受到特朗普政府攻击的政府雇员和美国大学。

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据美联社2025年5月26日最新报道，美联储主席杰罗姆·鲍威尔周日在普林斯顿大学的毕业典礼演讲中为美联储就对新冠疫情的措施进行辩护，并赞扬同样受到特朗普政府攻击的政府雇员和美国大学。

最近几周，鲍威尔和美联储受到了唐纳德·特朗普总统以及他潜在继任者、前美联储理事凯文·沃什的广泛批评。

鲍威尔在演讲中提到自己50年前毕业于普林斯顿大学，他特别为美联储在应对疫情时将关键利率降至近零的决定并启动一项涉及购买数万亿美元的国债和抵押支持证券的资产购买计划，以将长期利率保持在低位的政策进行辩护。

鲍威尔在谈到新冠疫情时说：“几乎没有任何预警，全球经济就陷入了停滞，一场漫长、严重的全球大萧条的可能性正摆在我们面前。每个人都向政府求助，尤其是向美联储这个关键的第一响应者求助。”

鲍威尔特别赞扬了长期任职的政府雇员：“美联储那些经历过以往危机的职业公务员挺身而出，说‘我们能搞定’。”

特朗普几个月来一直对鲍威尔进行一连串攻击，因为美联储在2024年底三次降息后，今年一直保持关键利率不变。特朗普称“没有通货膨胀”，所以美联储应该降低借贷成本。本月早些时候，特朗普称鲍威尔不降息是“傻瓜”，上周又称这位美联储主席是“行动迟缓的鲍威尔”。

为进一步激怒特朗普和挑起政治对立，鲍威尔一直采取避免直接回应特朗普攻击的策略，这一做法为他赢得了包括国会共和党人在内的美国政治和经济界人士的同情和支持。

在周日的演讲中，鲍威尔还为受到了特朗普政府的猛烈攻击的美国的大学进行辩护。包括普林斯顿大学在内的多所常春藤盟校和其他美国精英大学不仅受到特朗普政府攻击，而且被切断了研究经费和政府拨款。

鲍威尔说：“我们伟大的大学令世界羡慕，是国家的重要财富，看看你们周围。我敦促你们不要把这一切视为理所当然。”

上月末，2006年至2011年担任美联储理事的沃什抨击美联储在2022年让通货膨胀率飙升至40年来的最高水平。受特朗普赏识的沃什被认为是2026年5月鲍威尔任期结束后特朗普可能提名的下任美联储主席的主要候选人。

沃什在国际货币基金组织春季会议的场外演讲中说：“美联储每次采取行动，其规模和范围就会扩大、积累更多债务、跨越更多机构界限，下次就不得不采取更激进的行动。”虽然美联储并不发行债务，但沃什和其他批评美联储的人认为，美联储购买国债使得联邦政府能够借更多的钱并增加支出。

鲍威尔承认，在2021年通货膨胀开始上升时，美联储本可以更快地提高利率。不过，在周日的演讲中，他为美联储在疫情期间的表现进行了辩护说：“通过许多人的共同努力，我们避免了最糟糕的结果，很难想象人们在那样的时刻所面临的压力。他们的集体努力拯救了我们的经济，相关的职业公务员值得我们尊重和感激；能与他们共事是我的荣幸。”

资深分析家认为，特朗普持续攻击美联储主席鲍威尔主要出于以下目的：

一是胁迫美联储降息：特朗普认为美国经济没有通胀，且欧洲央行等全球其他央行纷纷降息，所以希望美联储也跟进降息以刺激经济增长。特朗普将降息视为避免美国经济衰退、巩固其“拯救美国”形象的手段，想通过低利率刺激短期经济增长，对冲中长期经济下行压力。而鲍威尔更关注通胀风险，认为特朗普的关税政策将引发通胀上升、降低民众消费意愿、导致企业放缓投资，若降息可能使通胀失控，给美国经济带来更大风险。

二是特朗普的关税政策引发国内强烈不满，且美国经济面临衰退风险。他试图将经济问题归咎于鲍威尔降息不及时，通过攻击鲍威尔推卸责任和转移民众对其政策失误的注意力。

三是特朗普不仅不愿尊重美国货币政策的独立性，也无意遵守联邦储备体系的技术中立地位，希望将美联储当作可操控的政治工具，试图通过攻击鲍威尔为干预美联储的独立性铺路。为迎合特朗普的意愿，其白宫团队已发出改革美联储结构，要求赋予总统更多对美联储决策层的影响权力，以将美联储变成白宫意志的延伸机构。

Powell defends Federal Reserve in Princeton speech amid onslaught of attacks from Trump. By CHRISTOPHER RUGABER.WASHINGTON (AP).May 26, 2025.

Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell defended the central bank’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic Sunday in a Princeton University commencement speech in which he also praised government employees and U.S. universities, both of which have been targeted by the Trump administration.

Powell and the central bank have been subject to extensive criticism in recent weeks by President Donald Trump and a potential successor, former Fed governor Kevin Warsh.

In his speech, Powell, who noted he graduated from Princeton 50 years ago, specifically defended the central bank’s decision to cut its key interest rate to nearly zero in response to the pandemic. It also launched an asset-purchase program that involved buying trillions of dollars of Treasury bonds and mortgage-backed securities, intended to keep longer-term interest rates low.

“With little warning, economies around the world came to a hard stop,” Powell said, referring to the pandemic. “The possibility of a long, severe, global depression was staring us in the face. Everyone turned to the government, and to the Federal Reserve in particular as a key first responder.”

Powell also singled out longtime government employees for praise: “Career civil servants at the Fed who are veterans of previous crises stepped forward and said, ‘We got this,’” he said.

Trump has subjected Powell to a stream of attacks for several months because the Fed has kept its key rate unchanged this year, after cutting it three times at the end of 2024. Trump has said there is “no inflation” so the Fed should reduce borrowing costs.

Earlier this month, Trump called Powell a “fool” for not cutting rates and last week called the Fed chair “Too Late Powell.”

Powell has not responded to Trump’s attacks, which has previously won him support among Republicans on Capitol Hill.

In his Sunday speech, he defended American universities, which have come under sharp attacks from the Trump administration as research grants and other funding have been cut for several Ivy League universities, including Princeton.

“Our great universities are the envy of the world and a crucial national asset,” Powell said. “Look around you. I urge you to take none of this for granted.”

Late last month, Warsh, who served as one of the Fed’s governors from 2006 to 2011, slammed the central bank for letting inflation spike to its highest level in four decades in 2022. Warsh is considered a leading candidate to become the next Fed chair when Powell’s term ends in May 2026.

“Each time the Fed jumps into action, the more it expands its size and scope,” Warsh said in a speech on the sidelines of the International Monetary Fund’s spring meetings. “More debt is accumulated ... more institutional lines are crossed and the Fed is compelled to act even more aggressively the next time.”

The Fed does not issue debt, but Warsh and other Fed critics argue that its purchase of Treasury bonds enabled to federal government to borrow and spend more.

Powell has acknowledged that the Fed could have moved quicker to raise interest rates once inflation began to rise in 2021. Still, on Sunday, he defended the Fed’s pandemic record.

“Through the joint efforts of many, we avoided the worst outcomes,” Powell said. “It is hard to imagine the pressure people face at a time like that. Their collective efforts saved our economy, and the career civil servants involved deserve our respect and gratitude; it is my great honor to serve alongside them.”

来源：读行品世事一点号