原文：
The default on the U.S. government’s demand notes in early 1862, caused by the Treasury’s financial difficulties trying to pay for the Civil War. In response, the U. S. government took to printing pure paper money, or “greenbacks,” which during the war fell to significant discounts against gold, depending particularly on the military fortunes of the Union armies.
The overt default by the U.S. government on its gold bonds in 1933. The United States had in clear and entirely unambiguous terms promised the bondholders to redeem these bonds in gold coin. Then it refused to do so, offering depreciated paper currency instead. The case went ultimately to the Supreme Court, which on a 5-4 vote, upheld the sovereign power of the government to default if it chose to. “As much as I deplore this refusal to fulfill the solemn promise of bonds of the United States,” wrote Justice Harlan Stone, a member of the majority, “the government, through exercise of its sovereign power…has rendered itself immune from liability,” demonstrating the classic risk of lending to a sovereign. In “American Default,” his highly interesting political history of this event, Sebastian Edwards concludes that it was an “excusable default,” but clearly a default.
Then the U.S. government defaulted in 1968 by refusing to honor its explicit promise to redeem its silver certificate paper dollars
for silver dollars. The silver certificates stated and still state on their face in language no one could misunderstand, “This certifies that there has been deposited in the Treasury of the United States of America one silver dollar, payable to the bearer on demand.” It would be hard to have a clearer promise than that. But when an embarrassingly large number of bearers of these certificates demanded the promised silver dollars, the U.S. government simply decided not to pay. For those who believed the certification which was and is printed on the face of the silver certificates: Tough luck.
The fourth default was the 1971 breaking of the U.S. government’s commitment to redeem dollars held by foreign governments for gold under the Bretton Woods Agreement. Since that commitment was the lynchpin of the entire Bretton Woods system, reneging on it was the end of the system. President Nixon announced this act as temporary: “I have directed [Treasury] Secretary Connally to suspend temporarily the convertibility of the dollar into gold.” The suspension of course became permanent, allowing the unlimited printing of dollars by the Federal Reserve today. Connally notoriously told his upset international counterparts, “The dollar is our currency but it’s your problem.”作者: semtex 时间: 2023-5-15 22:22
其实美国从71年以后理论上就不会违约了。以前叫“美金”，以后叫“美元”。随便印。作者: 孟词宗 时间: 2023-5-15 22:41
这里面三个是贵金属本位制度下才会出现的问题。现在的美元不再是金本位或银本位。那个黄金债券用纸币支付理论上不算违约。只是没有用贵金属支付罢了。大萧条期间，1933年4月5日，美国总统罗斯福下令人民上交全部的金币、金条，停止黄金的货币流通，美联储以20．67米元比一盎司来收取老百姓手中的黄金。这种情况下，所谓的黄金债券自然不会再用黄金支付。最高法院也不会支持用黄金支付。即使真的支付了，立马就又被美国政府强制收购，何必多此一举。作者: 老财迷 时间: 2023-5-16 19:48
耶伦成天说违约了美国会如何如何。
国内微博上有人呛：我不相信，要不违一次看看
