Factbox: At the Fed, hawks circle, doves hold sway

(Reuters) - The U.S. Federal Reserve's annual reshuffling of its monetary policy-setting panel looks set to trigger more dissents against moves designed to lower borrowing costs.

Joining the panel this year, beginning with its January 25-26 meeting, are Philadelphia Federal Reserve Bank President Charles Plosser and Dallas Fed Bank President Richard Fisher. Both opposed the Fed's renewed program of monetary easing in 2010, and both cast votes against easing in 2008, the last time they were panel members.

Last year Kansas City Fed Bank President Thomas Hoenig was the only panel member to dissent. Hoenig is not a voter this year.

Still, the majority of the Federal Open Market Committee, including Chicago Fed Bank President Charles Evans who rotates into a voting position this year, looks likely to continue to back Chairman Ben Bernanke's efforts to support the economy with easy monetary policy.

The following is a look at where Fed policy makers stand on a scale of 1 to 5, with "1" signifying doves most likely to support monetary easing and "5" representing hawks most likely to oppose it.

1 -- CHICAGO FED PRESIDENT CHARLES EVANS (2011 voter) Evans has been outspoken in supporting further Fed easing, saying its $600 billion Treasury-buying program is a "good place to start." Unemployment is too high, and inflation is too low, he said on November 16: "I would continue to want to apply accommodative monetary policy until I had some confidence that that situation was changing."

1 -- NEW YORK FED PRESIDENT WILLIAM DUDLEY (permanent voter)

Dudley has defended the Fed's actions strongly. "It's going to make the economy grow a little bit faster. It's going to generate a little bit more employment growth. But you know, we have a long, bumpy road to travel," he said on November 16.

1 -- FED GOVERNOR DANIEL TARULLO (permanent voter)

Tarullo, an appointee of President Barack Obama, focuses on bank supervision and does not speak frequently about the outlook for the economy or policy. He has, however, been supportive of quantitative easing. "The relatively modest pace of recovery, the continued high rate of unemployment, subdued inflation trends and well-anchored inflation expectations together suggest that the need for highly accommodative monetary policies will not diminish soon," Tarullo said on April 8.

1 -- FED VICE CHAIR JANET YELLEN (permanent voter)

Firmly in the pro-easing camp when she was president of the San Francisco Federal Reserve Bank president and Obama tapped her to be vice chairman of the Fed Board, Yellen took no one by surprise with her support for the Fed's latest move.

"I believe it will be helpful in strengthening the recovery. But it is hardly a panacea," she said on December 1.

1 -- BOSTON FED PRESIDENT ERIC ROSENGREN (2010 voter)

Rosengren has defended the Fed's second round of quantitative easing, dubbed QE2, since it was announced. despite a rise in Treasury yields, which some have seen as evidence the policy is not working. "I'm confident that when we're done, we'll say (QE2) had the desired impact," he told the Boston Herald in an interview published December 21.

1 -- FED GOVERNOR NOMINEE PETER DIAMOND (permanent voter)

Obama in January again nominated Diamond to the Fed Board, sticking with a pick that Republicans have already thwarted twice. A Nobel laureate in economics, Diamond appears ready to support easing to fight stubbornly high unemployment. "The recipe is activism," he told Reuters on December 16. "My reading is that right now I don't see any signs that we should be worrying about inflation as a reason to limit our reaction to high unemployment. ... Right now, I worry about doing too little."

2 -- FED CHAIRMAN BEN BERNANKE (permanent voter)

Bernanke's view on the need for more easing carried the day at the Fed, and all but one of the voting policymakers fell in line behind him on November 3.

The Fed chief has used a number of venues since to offer an extensive rationale for easing, saying sluggish growth, stubbornly high unemployment and falling inflation forced the Fed's hand.

"We have seen increased evidence that a self-sustaining recovery in consumer and business spending may be taking hold," and U.S. economic growth in 2011 will be "moderately stronger," he said on January 7. But, he added it will take four to five years for the labor market to get back to normal. He gave no hint of further buying beyond the program's June deadline, nor any inclination to cut it short.

2 -- MINNEAPOLIS FED PRESIDENT NARAYANA KOCHERLAKOTA (2011 voter)

Kocherlakota, initially a skeptic of the effectiveness of easing through long-term bond buying, surprised by backing the plan and expressing confidence it would help by lowering longer-term rates and steering investors to riskier assets than Treasury securities. "I believe that QE is a move in the right direction," he said on November 18. While cautioning the ultimate effects of the program could be modest, he said it strengthens the Fed's commitment to low rates for a long period.

2 -- FED GOVERNOR ELIZABETH DUKE (permanent voter)

In public remarks, Duke tends to focus more on regulatory issues than on the broader economy, but on January 7 she went to bat for the Fed's controversial bond-buying program, saying there was "accumulating evidence that these and other asset purchases were successful in exerting downward pressure on long-term interest rates."

The Wall Street Journal reported that she expressed reservations about the Fed's August 10 decision to reinvest proceeds from maturing mortgage-backed securities the central bank holds into government bonds, a move that was seen as holding the door open to further easing. However, Duke's career at the Fed, which she joined mid-crisis in August 2008, is likely to have strengthened her confidence in Bernanke's judgment and place her squarely in line behind the easing decision.