“ Federal Reserve officials regularly air their views in public speeches, but they rarely engage in public debates. On Tuesday night, two of the officials who disagree most sharply about the Fed’s current policy did just that.

“The exchange between Charles L. Evans, an outspoken advocate for the Fed’s efforts to stimulate the economy, and Jeffrey M. Lacker, the Fed’s most persistent internal critic, suggested their differences are as much a matter of temperament as economics.

“Mr. Lacker, the president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond, said he did not expect the economy to recover the losses sustained during the recession. “It’s hard to talk about the economic outlook without being a little bit of a sourpuss,” he said during a panel discussion sponsored by Virginia Commonwealth University.

“Mr. Evans, the president of the Chicago Fed, describing himself as “the happy guy in the room,” said the recovery had been postponed rather than canceled.”

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