Dove

Just as there are hawks and doves when it comes to waging war, the finance community likes to use the same terms when talking about setting interest rates.

“Doves” are the economic policy-making types who like to promote monetary initiatives that will result in low interest rates, believing that low interest rates increase employment.

“Hawks,” on the other hand, believe that high interest rates will help protect us from inflation and defend our dollar in the global marketplace, making it cheaper for U.S. dollars to buy product from foreign countries.

Most of the time, hawks and doves are duking it out on the Federal Reserve Board that meets once a month to set interest rates for the country. Did your credit card or variable mortgage interest rate go up last month? Then the hawks won this round.