Steve_American wrote:IMHO, before China invades Taiwan, if it ever does, it should give its US bonds to African nations to pay off much of their debt.
Why? Because the US will just take it away anyway.
I think you have a poor understanding of how the debt works.
If the U.S. refuses to pay back their debt, any portion of their debt, even to one country, what do you think that will do to their credit rating?
As the old saying goes, "Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me."
I'm sure I must have made a thread in the past about the dangers that China could use all the U.S. debt they hold as a weapon against the U.S.
If that credit rating goes bad, no one will lend to the U.S. again. This has huge national security implications. Imagine a major war some time in the future and the U.S. is unable to borrow money to pay for it.
They can always of course print money, but that will just lead to inflation. (Although of course we all know you don't agree with that view of reality, Steve_American)
Even if the interest rates go up a little bit as a result of damage to the U.S. credit worthiness, that could still very much hurt the U.S., make it much more expensive to maintain the debt. (Could easily consumer a quarter of total government revenue, which would be unimaginable and completely devastating. A topic for another thread)