“My assessment is simple: Inflation is too high,” Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook said at the outset of a speech delivered Wednesday in Anchorage, Alaska.
Later in her prepared remarks, Cook pointedly stated: “I consider the risks to the inflation side of the dual mandate higher than the risks to the employment side at this point. As such, I am prepared to act by raising rates, if necessary.”
Cook was among nine members of the Federal Open Market Committee who voted to hold interest rates steady at the FOMC’s July policy meeting. The other three — Beth Hammack, Neel Kashkari and Lorie Logan — voted for a quarter-point rate hike.  
On the hawk-dove scale of Fed officials who favor tighter versus looser monetary policy, Cook has leane...