Sovereign debt is inherently unsecured. It's a credit card for the government, nothing more. The primary motivation for servicing the debt is that it will enabl

Sovereign debt is inherently unsecured. It's a credit card for the government, nothing more. The primary motivation for servicing the debt is that it will enable more borrowing. And like people, countries don't pay off their debts for all sorts of reasons...not every default is created equally. At the least, Piketty is being intellectually dishonest. Personally, I think he is really just trying to appeal to the underdog by pointing out this poor analogue.