[throwaway2037]

"default on the currency and never borrow again"

I am struggling to believe this is a serious suggestion.

Can you please (oh please HN don't down vote me!) provide more details?

Almost all highly industrialised, wealthy nations are heavily dependent upon trade. If you default on your national debts to foreigners, they are very unlikely to want to trade with you in the (near) future. How to do you propose to overcome this issue? See Argentina!

[dnautics]

oh there is no doubt that everyone will be pissed off at the US for defaulting on the dollar since debts are denominated in it. But honestly, TINA. Due to demographics (we had milennials) the US is one of a few robust, rich, markets where you can sell your sh*t, so people will still want to trade with americans, regardless of what the government does. Finally, the US is not as dependent on foreign trade as you think. It has the lowest GDP:trade ratio of any country in G20 (worldwide it is in the very bottom: less than cuba and more than pakistan, and only above nigeria, afghanistan, ethiopia, and sudan). The US is even a net food and energy exporter, so it could probably survive a lowered trade volume. Everyone else would "be rekt", though. It would really suck for ecuador.

> See Argentina!

Perfect example. The country defaulted and it's honestly not a terrible place to be, considering what it's been through. Not everything is an exact parallel, but compare it to Brazil, where the country inflated instead of defaulted.