No national government of an English speaking nation has defaulted on its debt since the “Great Stop of the Exchequer” of Charles II Stuart in 1672:

"Here in the Anglo-Saxon world—never mind how few of us in it have any substantial proportion of our ancestors coming ashore with Hengest, Horsa, Esc, Ella, Cymen, Wlenking, and Cissa to loot, pillage, rape, and burn—we have not seen any government default since the “stop of the exchequer” of Charles II Stuart, when he simply got sick of paying his bills and decided to balance his budget by defaulting on his debt and then accepting bribes from Louis XIV of France, who was desperately anxious that Britain not help the Dutch resist his invasion."

http://delong.typepad.com/files/20120221-the-budget-and-macr...

I'm not sure if he's using an esoteric definition of "national government", "English speaking", or "default", but if you consider the "Failing to make a payment on a US government issued bond as agreed" then he's wrong. The US failed to pay out on inflation-adujsted WWI War bonds (paying them in nominal dollars rather than gold contrary to the bond terms, a substantial haircut) and during a previous unprecedented debt ceiling crisis in 1979 the US tried to dance too close to the edge and wasn't able to pay all the bonds due on time.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberty_bond#Default_of_the_Fou... http://www.npr.org/2011/07/11/137773341/looking-at-when-the-...

"A Lannister always pays his debts"