No need to speculate, Bill, here are the facts (we were discussing
Dennis's views about the unimportance of the UK vis a vis Japan
and Germany).
Net Foreign Purchases of U.S. Bonds
(In millions of U.S. dollars)
Government Corporate Total
Bonds Bonds
1993 58,980 30,572 89,552
1994 100,481 37,992 138,473
1995 162,844 57,853 220,697
1996 293,685 77,978 371,663
Of which:
Europe 137,148 56,194 193,342
Germany 19,297 3,514 22,811
United Kingdom 76,323 43,702 120,025
Spain 18,421 462 18,883
Asia 112,597 9,806 122,403
Japan 48,985 6,099 55,084
China 17,209 257 17,466
Hong Kong, China 15,281 1,737 17,018
1997:Q1 17,048 20,826 97,874
Source: U.S. Department of Treasury, Treasury Bulletin.
William S. Lear wrote:
> Mark's claim that "the major purchaser of US govt. and commercial
> bonds was not Germany or Japan - but the United Kingdom" is not only
> wrong by his criteria (Mark probably meant to say "relative to Japan
> and Germany"), but it also seems a dubious leap. If I were given a
> table as Mark provided and asked to draw conclusions from it, I would
> not, in my ignorance, conclude anything about the relative size of
> purchases (holdings?) of US govt/commercial paper.
>
> Enlightenment welcomed.
>
> Bill
