Someone asked me if the U.S. should do that. Maybe he had been reading Murray Rothbard. I just found that article. My response was not to say it should or should not be done, but to say what would happen if it were done:

"You are talking about total bankruptcy in which no one gets a nickel back on their loans. This means that US taxpayers are complete deadbeats. Lots of that debt is held domestically, huge amounts too, so that impoverishes many. But even if that were not so, it signals that the US will use inflation. That move means an immediate flight from the dollar and hyperinflation is my guess. It means the end of the US government because it will have zero credit after that. The entire Empire collapses. So, the government will never do that. Indeed, they have just done the opposite. They guaranteed to China that they will pay them on their Fannie Mae obligations."

Much of this public debt is the sin of now-living generations of Americans. It is this society's responsibility. Rothbard argued that the debt was of past generations. I disagree. He argued that government incurred it, not the people. I disagree. I argue that we the people share a lot of responsibility for what our government does. It's a two-way street. Pay it off, sell U.S. lands and pay it off. Cut back spending, reduce debt-like obligations to ourselves and guarantees, and pay it off. In other words, liquidate the government in an orderly and responsible way. Don't repudiate the debt. I read and benefit from Murray Rothbard. On a number of matters, I do not agree with him. This is one.