Technically, the US has defaulted in '79... but I think we can agree that was not a true default in the spirit of this conversation. It doez though illustrate

Technically, the US has defaulted in '79... but I think we can agree that was not a true default in the spirit of this conversation. It doez though illustrate technically and reality are 2 different things. And the reality is the US can default. While the option is there to endless print money and technically avoid default, should that situation happen, USD will become worth less the more they print. So you end up hitting a point where you essentially issue money of near no value. Once a govt sees this happening it's more realistical they bite the bullet, hit the reset button and default. Because a country needs a functioning currency that people have confidence in to run and recover. No reasonable govt is going to keep issuing money to 'avoid default' at the cost of recovering the economy. And arguably even if they did, issuing worthless money would in the spirit of debt repayment, be considered a form of default.