why is it called hawkish 
hawks and hawkish policy are more aggressive in nature whether in terms of monetary policy or military stance during a potential conflict it is named after hawks the aggressive birds of prey the opposite are a dove and dovish policies seen as more meek or conservative these epitomize peaceful symbolism can hawks become doves and vice versa yes as the recent history of u s fed leadership shows alan greenspan who served as chair of the fed from 1987 to 2006 was considered to be fairly hawkish in 1987 but he changed over time to a relatively dovish stance ben bernanke who served in the post from 2006 to 2014 also alternated between hawkish and dovish tendencies janet yellen fed chief from 2014 to 2018 was generally seen as a dove who was committed to maintaining low lending rates jerome powell named to the post in 2018 was rated as neutral neither hawkish nor dovish by the bloomberg intelligence fed spectrometer 