Jon Hilsenrath and Kristina Peterson: Federal Reserve 'Doves' Beat 'Hawks' in Economic Prognosticating: Noted for July 29, 2013

Jon Hilsenrath and Kristina Peterson: Federal Reserve 'Doves' Beat 'Hawks' in Economic Prognosticating:

As the U.S. emerged from recession in the summer of 2009, Janet Yellen, then president of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, took a grim view of the economy's prospects. "I expect the pace of the recovery will be frustratingly slow," she said in a San Francisco speech. A month later, addressing fears that money flooding into the economy from the Federal Reserve would stoke inflation, Ms. Yellen said not to worry in a speech to Idaho bankers: High unemployment and the weak economy would tamp wages and prices.

Others at the Fed spoke forcefully in the other direction. Unless the central bank reversed the easy money course, Philadelphia Fed President Charles Plosser warned in December 2009, "the inflation rate is likely to rise to levels that most would consider unacceptable."

Ms. Yellen was proved right.