As I said, we will see.
US default (or at least “technical default”) is not impossible, but because of stupid reasons. Remember when the Republicans refused to pass the budget extension a few years ago? If the government is divisive, it can become dysfunctional.
With that being said, as dysfunctional as the US government is, it is far better than the collective government of the European Union and probably that of any other entity of similar size.
Agree that the quotes above do not account for the madness and stupidity of politicians or better said: “That’s the plague of our time, where the madmen lead the blind” (W. Shakespeare)
Interesting… What’s your support for such claim - has anybody else ever made a similar argument?
See the second quote in my post, but you can also look it up via google.
Moreover, why would be the US government with the US-Dollar as world lead and reserve currency take on debt in Euro, Yen or any other currency? That would be completely irrational…
If creditors demand their money back, and you have to print your way into hyperinflation, that’s default too. Strategic default on one creditor is default. No matter how much people say “there is no way”, ways do happen. And they often include ways nobody thought of…
In the end the US will kick the can and scheme, same as Greece. But yeah, keep believing “it’s different”. 
Your hypothesis is based on the assumption that the US-Dollar will be replaced by another currency in the mid-/long-term as reserve currency. To be honest, I don’t see that coming during my lifetime…
And as I said at the beginning: The only question is what the dollars will be worth to the Chinese at the time of payback. The truth is that both countries have each other on their balls…
I’m struggling to see how you could possibly think there would be any other outcome.
Actually, you are the one making assumptions. I make none.
As such?
purealpha loves to argue for the sake of arguing.
You assume things can’t happen (in your lifetime). That’s a very common assumption.
I will argue that!
People make serious errors in their thinking. I point this out in the present moment. Time passes. I end up being right. They do not learn from their errors. They make serious errors in their thinking, again. I point out serious errors in their thinking, again…into perpituity.
It’s all rather repetitive, but yeah, I’m sure certain events can’t happen because of American denial.
I said that I do not see it coming which is a subjective statement / judgment rather than an assumption / firm assertion…
Let’s at least agree on this 
Sorry, no basis for saying something can not happen, because you have subjectively ruled out all ways in which it can happen.
That is a serious error in thinking.
That’s a rather strong assumption, isn’t it? Or should I better say a matter of fact?
demand their money back? yes, at maturity, but someone else will buy, if they do not, because the U.S. can simply sell their government assets to cover all outstanding debt. we’ll have this discussion again when the U.S. debt to gdp ratio is 150% and total government assets are still the same, at which point i’ll give you some slack but as it stands now, you’re just regurgitating media sensationalism without much thought.
More assumptions from Matt. Or perhaps they will demand before maturity, it’s called selling. Or perhaps there will not be buyers. Or perhaps the USD will not be the reserve currency. Or perhaps things we have not imagined.
LOL, I’m not a kind of guy who “regurgitates media sensationalism without much thought”. I’m the kind of guy who does math and knows the NPV of USG cash flows is over negative $100 trillion. But yeah, I’m sure it will be fine.
This is silly. No creditor can “demand repayment” beyond what normally occurs at maturity. There is also no single maturity date at which there is a large enough notional amount of debt due that it would create hyperinflation to print enough dollars to ensure we had the cash to meet that demand. On top of it, no one creditor holds all of any one single issue. So, literally, what you’re talking about isn’t based in any form of reality.
But even if I just say for example China somehow got their hands on every T-Bill out there, which would be nearly impossible and would dislocate markets, telegraphing the move, but lets just say they could… Then they’d have to demand maturity, and somehow all of the displaced demand they’ve created would have to refuese to show up at debt auctions to roll the maturities, and even THEN, it is unlikely it would be a large enough notional amount to create hyper-inflation even if we were to resort to purely printing dollars. EVEN THEN, it would still not legally constitute a default in any way shape or form and would simply serve to increase issuing yields by some amount.
Your prior argument was that somehow good old fashioned Americans would rather slave under a debt burden than take a default, which is completely contrary to American’s well known love of loopholes and legalism as well as the wave of defaults that went down in 2008.
There’s no put back to the govt. Either you sell to the secondary or you hold to maturity. Even if you force sell all of China’s holdings (~7% of US debt). The result is temporary, transient, hurts China at least as much through losses in value and can be handled via printing or issuing within extremely short maturities at elevated rates to provide liquidity through the transition. This situation would not result in years of slaving under a burden, but rather an acute liquidity crisis that would end with slightly higher rates after the situation had rebalanced, or at worst some amount of printing.