Why the Doves Rule at Bernanke's Fed

Mild-mannered Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke has pulled off a feat any pol would envy: winning more than 90 percent support for an extreme and untested new policy. On Dec. 12, the Fed’s rate-setting committee voted 11-1 for a monetary policy that for the first time links interest rates explicitly to numerical targets for unemployment and inflation. The Fed also voted to expand its bond purchases to bring down long-term interest rates.

Hawks are concerned that inflationary psychology could become embedded in the economy if the Fed stays dovish for too long. But the only member of the Federal Open Market Committee to vote against the new policy was Jeffrey Lacker, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond, who has dissented all year. He’ll rotate off the roster of voting members in 2013. The FOMC probably won’t have a strongly hawkish presence until 2014, when Philadelphia Fed President Charles Plosser and Dallas Fed President Richard Fisher gain votes.