Esther George, Kansas City
This year marks George's first term as a voting member of the FOMC. She was appointed president of the Kansas City Fed in October 2011, following in the footsteps of one of the most outspoken Fed hawks, Thomas Hoenig.
George has given only a handful of speeches about monetary policy since then, but so far, she has made it clear that she too is an inflation hawk. In a speech earlier this month, she warned that the Fed's stimulative policies could risk fueling an asset bubble in bonds or farmland, among other things.
Meanwhile, she is skeptical that the central bank's efforts will help the job market.
"Like others, I am concerned about the high rate of unemployment, but I recognize that monetary policy, by contributing to financial imbalances and instability, can just as easily aggravate unemployment as heal it," she said in the prepared remarks.
