Re:U.S. Treasury Data Lab
by sega_sai on Tuesday September 14, 2021 @09:45PM
(#28534195)
Sovereign nations can default if the debt is nominated in a different currency (which was the case of Russia, but is not the case for US)
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No, they can default even when it is denominated in their own currency, which is what Russia did.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1998_Russian_financial_crisis
Most countries just choose not to do this. They weren't forced to default. They could have chosen to monetize their debt. They just didn't choose to do that.
A sovereign could choose to default even if they somehow had a net surplus. Because, you know, sovereign literally means you can do whatever you want up to some more powerful foreign sovereign invading, because you have a local monopoly on violence.