Originally Posted by Villages Kahuna

Maybe the Greeks have a good idea. Their newly-elected Socialist prime minister has said that they will not introduce the deep austerity programs demanded by the EU. If they don't relent in their demands for austerity he said, Greece will simply default on its debts.

So what if the U.S. did the same? That might not be all bad. We'd fix the national debt problem in a hurry--reduce it to zero. We'd screw up our biggest economic rival China, who'd suddenly find themselves holding lots of worthless U.S bonds and notes. And we'd also fix the partisan political stalemate in Washington. No one would lend us any more money, so we'd have to balance the budget.

Doesn't sound too bad to me. It might work better than any of the other alternatives. Ahh, those crafty Greeks!