What happens if the USA defaults on its debts??????????

This is from almost 3 weeks ago:

China warns U.S. debt-default idea is "playing with fire"
Republican lawmakers are "playing with fire" by contemplating even a brief debt default as a means to force deeper government spending cuts, an adviser to China's central bank said on Wednesday.
The idea of a technical default -- essentially delaying interest payments for a few days -- has gained backing from a growing number of mainstream Republicans who see it as a price worth paying if it forces the White House to slash spending, Reuters reported on Tuesday.
But any form of default could destabilize the global economy and sour already tense relations with big U.S. creditors such as China, government officials and investors warn.
Li Daokui, an adviser to the People's Bank of China, said a default could undermine the U.S. dollar, and Beijing needed to dissuade Washington from pursuing this course of action.
"I think there is a risk that the U.S. debt default may happen," Li told reporters on the sidelines of a forum in Beijing. "The result will be very serious and I really hope that they would stop playing with fire."
China is the largest foreign creditor to the United States, holding more than $1 trillion in Treasury debt as of March, U.S. data shows, so its concerns carry considerable weight in Washington.

And this is from way before (May 24th 2010) the tentative movements that have been springing up since the Tunisian uprising:

Learn To Love A U.S. Default
John Tamny...
Contrary to popular belief, government spending is our economy's crisis, and a default would be its cure.
Government debt problems in Greece have predictably generated a great deal of domestic hand-wringing over nosebleed deficits and spending in the U.S.
By now most are familiar with what the experts say is ahead, including, but not limited to, a downgrade of U.S. debt, no more “kindness of strangers” as investors the world over turn their backs on a country lacking any spending discipline, and finally, skyrocketing interest rates as U.S. Treasury yields rise to match their well-earned junk reputation. To believe the experts, the U.S. is Greece, only larger, and the Titanic is nearing the iceberg.
Let’s hope. Indeed, rather than fear what some say is inevitable anyway, it’s time we learn to love the idea of a U.S. default. Contrary to conventional wisdom, government spending itself is our economy’s crisis, while a default would be its cure.
For Americans to worry about a debt default is like the parent of a heroin addict fearing that his dealers will cease feeding the addiction. In truth, just as the much-needed heroin withdrawals would mark the beginning of the addict’s recovery, so would a cessation on the part of investors when it comes to funding federal waste signal a United States on the mend.

Rabbit: Sorry for the delayed response - wrote one then somehow it got knocked off and didn't have time/energy to re-write it.

Firstly that quote from John Tamny - he's a right-wing economist, and his desire for a default is a desire for even greater government spending cuts, the bulk of which would obviously fall on the working class. I wasn't quoting him positively.

As for abstractions - well, that partly necessarily follows any speculation about a future possible or even probable event (e.g.who, after Munich 1938, could give anything but an abstract outline of the course of the inevitable war "in our time"?). Personally, unless there's a massive upsurge of class struggle within the next few months, I doubt if the US ruling class would risk a default during election year, though a temporary default "to test the water" might happen (each party blaming the other if things go unpredictably wrong). After November 2012 almost anything is possible.

For us, global and local networks of solidarity (which should certainly not develop at the expense of the progress of very thorough mutual critiques) are about the only way we can "prepare" practically. On a theoretical level, preparation should perhaps concentrate on such questions as:
What would be the consequences of a massive economic trade war with China (the US's main creditor)?
What if this leads to global war, starting off say in the Middle East - the present conflicts between Turkey and Iran over Syria could be a catalyst - and there's a real possiblity of it going nuclear...and we should ask ourselves what would be the consequences on the consciousness of proletarians if it does?
What practical forms of resistance, past and present, could be applied to such things as : how to stop evictions, how to stop paying for vast increases in prices of utilities, how to get food given that shortages are likely? How have past and present movements around these questions been limited both in terms of numbers participating in them and in more "qualitative" terms (failure to confront those who pretend to be friends of these movements but in fact act as obstacles, lack of inventiveness in tactics...). What practical initiatives have been suggested but never been tried out? What ideological, and other, blocks prevent proletarians embarking on such adventures?

I suspect you could think of more questions - but the real question is to prepare with the people we know and with people we could get to know, and I don't think most of that can be answered online. Moreover, precise answers to some of these questions online can be picked up by our enemies and used to pre-empt any practical answers to them, so really when it comes to anything less abstract than what I've posed here, we should confine ourselves to those we trust and to forms of communication that are more secure than an online discussion forum.

I said right at the start of this thread that "My knowledge of economics is pretty poor,"; but given that, according to Mouvement Communiste's article, which I linked to, the Greek economy has been pretty strong (certainly far stronger than the US's), I can't see any other interpretation for the IMF etc. imposing such austerity measures. Perhaps you, or someone else, can. In the age of our domination by finance/fictive capital, money is, above all, a method of social control.

As for printing dollars to pay foreign debts, I'd have thought that couldn't work - it'd work as some measure internally (say, to pay a public sector pay increase) but externally...? But, I repeat, "My knowledge of economics is pretty poor" - so again, if there's anybody out there reading this who can clarify the position, that'd save me a lot of research time, which today, and certainly at this time of the morning, I have neither time nor energy to do. This thread is as much an attempt to educate myself as it is to communicate my own understanding of things.

But maybe this begins to explain things:
http://www2.chinadaily.com.cn/world/2011-04/21/content_12369000.htm

The US faces the prospect of a "catastrophe" as President Barack Obama stands firm against Republican demands for deep spending cuts without any tax increases as the condition for raising the country's borrowing limit and avoiding a debt default.
With Washington gripped by a growing sense that it may be too late to avert a crisis, the president has said he will give the increasingly rancorous negotiations until the end of next week to reach agreement on the terms for raising the US's $14.3 trillion (£8.9tn) debt ceiling.
The White House has said that if there is no agreement by 22 July, then discussion about budget cuts and taxes should be abandoned in favour of legislation dealing solely with raising the debt ceiling before the borrowing limit is reached on 2 August. But the Republicans have rejected legislation without agreement on budget cuts.
With European leaders also facing a potentially ruinous debt crisis, a leading Wall Street figure described the prospect of a US default as catastrophic.
Jamie Dimon, chief executive of JP Morgan, one of Wall Street's biggest banks, said: "No one can tell me with certainty that a US default wouldn't cause catastrophe and wouldn't severely damage the US or global economy. And it would be irresponsible to take that chance."
On Wednesday, Ben Bernanke, the chairman of the Federal Reserve, warned of a "huge financial calamity" if a political agreement is not reached. He told Congress a default would "send shockwaves through the entire financial system".
Hours later, the credit ratings agency Moody's warned that it may downgrade the US's AAA credit rating, saying there is a "rising possibility" that no deal will be reached by next month's deadline.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2011/jul/14/us-debt-ceiling-obama-default

Debt ceiling talks between Obama and Republicans collapse

Any radical online articles about this that I've not noticed,?

I said earlier (June 26th):

I doubt if the US ruling class would risk a default during election year, though a temporary default "to test the water" might happen (each party blaming the other if things go unpredictably wrong). After November 2012 almost anything is possible.

Any further thoughts? Or are we all rabbits hypnotised by the oncoming headlights, somehow hoping they'll swerve away at the last moment?