Has Goldman Sachs shorted America?

I don't mean shorted as stolen, although you could make that point rather well, I mean has Goldman shorted America the way that they bet against the people holding the mortgages that they knew would default.

A republican senator recently said that the US should default on its debts and more specifically that it should default on the 'debts' that are in the Social Security 'Trust' Fund.

You see that the Social Security 'fund' isn't stuffed to the gills with real money. No, it's stuffed with US Bonds. A bond is roughly a loan agreement. You agree to give money to the government and they agree to pay it back, with interest, at some future time.

So what happens to this country if we start defaulting on our debts?

If you are unlucky enough, you have a family member that is always trying to borrow money from you. If you are more unlucky, you have loaned them money, 'trusting' that they will pay you back. To be even more unlucky they haven't paid you back. Even when you put pressure on them to make good on the loan, they still won't pay it back.

Well, how eager are you to loan them any more money? Probably not very likely at all.

Well, if you were Goldman Sachs, or a rather large number of Wall Street corporations, you can actually bet that you won't get the money back by 'shorting' it. I realize that it's a little more complicated than that but basically part of the reason why Goldman and so many other Wall Street corporations made out like bandits, and so many people got so screwed, in this whole 'economic collapse' is because at the same time Wall Street was making and packaging those debts, they were betting that they would be defaulted on.

So back to the US: If we start defaulting on our debts, a thing which has never in the history of this planet ever happened (which makes us a damn good risk for other countries to loan us money (and is part of the reason, perhaps, we are in such straights)), we become an 'unsafe risk'.

Other governments don't want to risk lending us money anymore. Also the interest rate on our current debt, and any future debt, skyrockets.

Those unlucky enough to be holding our debt will revolt. All of the sudden that note that you may have had your relative sign agreeing to repay that loan becomes worthless and so do our US Bonds and other debt. Not to mention our money too which is backed by 'the full faith and credit' of the US Government...

So, the big question that I have now when people (odd that it's always either a tea bagger or a republican (further proving a solid and direct link between the parent and offspring)) start talking about us defaulting on our debts is: Who will benefit?

You have to just know that someone, or a whole bunch of someones, are going to make off like bandits if this happens AND a whole lot of the world is going to be pretty god damned mad at us for doing it.

So, should the US default on any of our debts?

After this explanation, do you really need to think on it any farther? It's playing chicken with the financial market on a whole new level...  And who wins if the United States falls flat on its face? I know who loses...Goldman Sachs shorted the Greek economy already. Are we next?