This paper documents the impact of U.S. monetary policy announcement surprises on foreign equity indexes, short-and long-term interest rates, and exchange rates in 49 countries. We use two proxies for monetary policy surprises: the surprise change to the current target federal funds rate (target surprise) and the revision to the path of future monetary policy (path surprise). We find that different asset classes respond to different components of the monetary policy surprises. Global equity indexes respond mainly to the target surprise; exchange rates and long-term interest rates respond mainly to the path surprise; and short-term interest rates respond to both surprises. On average, a hypothetical surprise 25-basis-point cut in the federal funds target rate is associated with about a 1 percent increase in foreign equity indexes and a 5 basis point decline in foreign short-term interest rates. A surprise 25-basis-point downward revision in the path of future policy is associated with about a ½ percent decline in the exchange value of the dollar against foreign currencies and 5 and 8 basis points declines in short-and long-term interest rates, respectively. We also find that asset prices' responses to FOMC announcements vary greatly across countries, and that these cross-country variations in the response are related to a country's exchange rate regime. Equity indexes and interest rates in countries with a less flexible exchange rate regime respond more to U.S. monetary policy surprises. In addition, the crosscountry variation in the equity market response is strongly related to the percentage of each country's equity market capitalization owned by U.S. investors (a financial linkage), and the cross-country variation in short-term interest rates' responses is strongly related to the share of each country's trade that is with the United States (a real linkage).Keywords: monetary policy announcements, equity markets, interest rates, exchange rates, exchange rate regime JEL Classification: E44, E52, G14, G15 * Research assistant and economist, respectively, in the Division of International Finance of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System. We thank Refet Gürkaynak for providing monetary policy announcement surprises data. We thank Sigga Benediktsdottir, Mark Carey, Joe Gagnon, John Rogers, Chiara Scotti, and Clara Vega and seminar participants in the FRB Finance Forum for helpful comments and suggestions and Bruce Gilsen for frequent help with SAS. Of course, we take responsibility for any and all errors. For questions and comments, please contact

In early 2013, Japan enacted a monetary regime change. The Bank of Japan set a two percent inflation target and specified concrete actions to achieve this goal by 2015. Shinzo Abe's government is supporting this change with fiscal policy and structural reforms. We show that Abenomics ended deflation in 2013 and raised long-run inflation expectations. Our estimates suggest that Abenomics also raised 2013 output growth by 0.9 to 1.8 percentage points. Monetary policy alone accounted for up to a percentage point of growth, largely through positive effects on consumption. In the medium and long-run, Abenomics will likely continue to be stimulative. But the size of this effect, while highly uncertain, thus far appears likely to fall short of Japan's large output gap. In part this is because the Bank of Japan's two percent inflation target is not yet fully credible. We conclude by outlining how to interpret future data releases in light of our results.

Conventional wisdom has it that in the 1930s fiscal policy did not work because it was not tried. This paper shows that fiscal policy was tried in 1936. The veterans' bonus of 1936 paid 2 percent of GDP to 3.2 million veterans; the typical veteran received a payment equal to per capita income. Multiple sources, including a household consumption survey, show that veterans spent the majority of their bonus. Point estimates of the MPC are between 0.6 and 0.75. Spending was concentrated on cars and housing in particular. (JEL E21, E32, E62, N32, N42) The gov't last week paid a soldiers' bonus of over two billion and as a result the veterans have been buying cars, clothing, etc. Streets are crowded and the highways are jammed with new cars. It begins to look like old times again. -Benjamin Roth's diary, June 25, 1936 (Roth 2009, p. 172)In most years of the 1930s, increases in government spending were matched by increases in taxes. 1936 was an exception. 1 Over Franklin Roosevelt's veto, congress 1 The seminal reference is E. Cary Brown (1956), who analyzes movements in the full employment deficit over the 1930s. Brown (1956, pp. 863-866) famously concludes that "Fiscal policy, then, seems to have been an unsuccessful recovery device in the 'thirties-not because it did not work, but because it was not tried." This quote is often given in isolation, ignoring Brown's statement that there was significant spending in 1931 and 1936, when the government paid veterans (Brown 1956). Brown may also underestimate the size of the veterans' bonus in 1936. He says that the bonus was $1. 4 billion in 19364 billion in (Brown 1956. This is the dollar value of the bonds issued to veterans that were cashed (see Section IB). The more appropriate measure of the bonus for comparison to other tax and transfer programs is the amount given to veterans. This was $1.8 billion. The magnitude of the bonus in 1936 is what leads me to argue that, contra Brown's statement, fiscal policy was tried in the 1930s, at least in 1936.

This paper documents the impact of U.S. monetary policy announcement surprises on foreign equity indexes, short-and long-term interest rates, and exchange rates in 49 countries. We use two proxies for monetary policy surprises: the surprise change to the current target federal funds rate (target surprise) and the revision to the path of future monetary policy (path surprise). We find that different asset classes respond to different components of the monetary policy surprises. Global equity indexes respond mainly to the target surprise; exchange rates and long-term interest rates respond mainly to the path surprise; and short-term interest rates respond to both surprises. On average, a hypothetical surprise 25-basis-point cut in the federal funds target rate is associated with about a 1 percent increase in foreign equity indexes and a 5 basis point decline in foreign short-term interest rates. A surprise 25-basis-point downward revision in the path of future policy is associated with about a ½ percent decline in the exchange value of the dollar against foreign currencies and 5 and 8 basis points declines in short-and long-term interest rates, respectively. We also find that asset prices' responses to FOMC announcements vary greatly across countries, and that these cross-country variations in the response are related to a country's exchange rate regime. Equity indexes and interest rates in countries with a less flexible exchange rate regime respond more to U.S. monetary policy surprises. In addition, the crosscountry variation in the equity market response is strongly related to the percentage of each country's equity market capitalization owned by U.S. investors (a financial linkage), and the cross-country variation in short-term interest rates' responses is strongly related to the share of each country's trade that is with the United States (a real linkage).Keywords: monetary policy announcements, equity markets, interest rates, exchange rates, exchange rate regime JEL Classification: E44, E52, G14, G15 * Research assistant and economist, respectively, in the Division of International Finance of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System. We thank Refet Gürkaynak for providing monetary policy announcement surprises data. We thank Sigga Benediktsdottir, Mark Carey, Joe Gagnon, John Rogers, Chiara Scotti, and Clara Vega and seminar participants in the FRB Finance Forum for helpful comments and suggestions and Bruce Gilsen for frequent help with SAS. Of course, we take responsibility for any and all errors. For questions and comments, please contact