Should the United States Consider Bankruptcy?

by Francis Cianfrocca

A simple but striking piece by Gideon Rachman in the Financial Times makes the point that the US might benefit from an episode of near-bankruptcy. However, this would mean less for us than it has for other overextended nations.

Rachman points out something fascinating that had never occurred to me: look at the large roster of near-failed states in recent decades, that turned a national fiscal crisis into an opportunity to make very positive national changes: Britain in 1976, India in 1991, China in 1978, nearly all of Latin America in the early 1980s, and others. Rachman’s point is that the US could be approaching a similar brink. And we might respond by making some fundamental changes in our society.

Read the whole thing at The New Ledger.