While I agree with Mr. Martenson about many things, in this case he is utterly confused. First, there is zero chance we’ll have a default on the U.S.’ sovereign debt. The dollar is fiat currency, if nothing else, the government can print enough dollars to pay every nickel of the debt. The famed IMF and “bond vigilantes” are a) incompetent, and b) non-existent. S&P’s threatened downgrade of U.S. government obligations is about as accurate as their ratings of the securitized mortgages that led to the “Great Recession.” If you believe the IMF is a competent arbiter of economics, then all you have to do is look at the Asian economies that followed their advice vs. those that didn’t (hint: the former tanked, the latter recovered). Ditto for Iceland v. Ireland, for another example. Note that the bond markets responded to S&P’s threatened downgrade by bidding up the price of the subject bonds. Again: the “bond vigilantes” are non-existent. Read Paul Krugman’s blog and editorials about this.Unfortunately Mr. Martenson has bought the baloney that “big government debt” is a problem. It’s not. Period.
…and yes, there are many other problems about which he is correct. This gives me doubts about those others, though.