“serial defaulters.” Among the countries that have defaulted two or more times in the past 20 years are Argentina, Venezuela, Brazil, Croatia, Angola, Gabon, Ghana, Liberia, Mongolia and the Dominican Republic. The largest-ever serial defaulter of the 20th century: Russia.
Historically, the U.S. was a serial defaulter from the time of the Revolutionary War. The U.S. defaulted most recently in 1933 when President Franklin Roosevelt (simply by signing Executive Order 6102) commanded Americans to hand over whatever gold they possessed, either in coin or bullion, to the Federal Reserve. The U.S. paid $20.67 an ounce for this gold and then reset the price at $35, a devaluation of 40 per cent. Britain has defaulted at least four times. The Soviet Union has defaulted three times (1917, 1947 and 1957); post-Soviet Russia once (1999).
Canada, though, has never defaulted – except imperceptibly, as befits good government, through inflation.
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