I'm a big fan of American Public Media's Marketplace radio show, but Friday's show featured CNBC's John Carney and Fortune's Leigh Gallagher discussing the U.S. debt situation.
Both John and Leigh stated the oft-repeated myth that the U.S. has *never* defaulted.
If only that were true.
The above summary is from Carmen Reinhart's and Ken Rogoff's research in their superb book This Time is Different, which is available in the Good Books and Films section on the far right column of this blog.
As you can see from their research not only has the U.S. defaulted, but the U.S. has defaulted or 'restructured' (a partial-default) at least once every century since the founding of the republic. Details on each episode can be found in the book and at Carmen's website.
As Reinhart and Rogoff put it, the U.S. is definitely not a "default virgin".
Both John and Leigh stated the oft-repeated myth that the U.S. has *never* defaulted.
If only that were true.
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The above summary is from Carmen Reinhart's and Ken Rogoff's research in their superb book This Time is Different, which is available in the Good Books and Films section on the far right column of this blog.
As you can see from their research not only has the U.S. defaulted, but the U.S. has defaulted or 'restructured' (a partial-default) at least once every century since the founding of the republic. Details on each episode can be found in the book and at Carmen's website.
As Reinhart and Rogoff put it, the U.S. is definitely not a "default virgin".
Here's John Carney's response to my post:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.cnbc.com/id/43140915