>governments don't literally just print money, but sells bonds at market rates

no, sometimes they literally do exactly that.

google for quantitative easing. that's what it is and it's a tool that can always be used by monetarily sovereign countries to bring bond interest rates down by as much as they want.

insolvency thus isnt possible.

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hvb2 6 hours ago | parent [-]

> insolvency thus isnt possible.

You might want to look up Zimbabwe or Germany (after WW1). When your money becomes worth less than the paper it's printed on...

So, it's possible, and has happened before.

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raincom 6 hours ago | parent [-]

As long exporter nations want to swap their real assets with digits (US dollars), US is solvent.

	▲	hvb2 6 hours ago \| parent [-]
		Yes, and that's a function of knowing what you can buy for that dollar. As soon as you start devaluing your currency to get out of debt, not so much. I believe Argentina is a fine example of that