>Does anybody know in what financial instruments foreign claims on the US
>are held?
All kinds, but about 30% of foreign assets are U.S. government bonds ($1.5 trillion worth), and 12% corporate bonds. U.S. holders have comparatively small amouts of foreign bonds. Stock holdings are a wash - U.S. owners hold about as much foreign equity as foreigners hold of U.S. paper. The U.S. has a small credit on net foreign direct investment.
At the end of the third quarter of 1998, 33% of US Treasury securities were held by foreigners, up from just 10% in 1991.
Doug