New Delhi, June 3 -- Former US Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell's fierce defence of central bank independence is not surprising. Indeed, given the repeated onslaughts on the Fed's independence by US President Donald Trump and the context in which those remarks were made, any other topic would have been a surprise.

The occasion was Powell's acceptance speech on being conferred the 2026 John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award. The citation commends him for standing firm in the face of "years of personal attacks and threats from the highest levels of government," noting that he "refused to let political forces dictate monetary policy."

While Powell was at the Fed's helm, till last month, America's central bank was at the receiving end ...