Reply #30: Well, that depends on what "benefit" means.

[Fool Count]

It is certainly true that following the default US could negotiate a massive "haircut" with its creditors,
or it could simply buy out the outstanding debt on the market for cents on the dollar. That would potentially
save few trillions in addition to hundreds of billions they are paying now annually in interest. It would
also put an end to the USD being the world's reserve currency and all the advantages US derives from that
status. Another down side will be the epic global financial crisis that default would cause via the liquidity
squeeze due to US creditors in turn defaulting on their debs and their creditors defaulting on theirs and so on.
Frankly, the current US debt is so massive and so close to becoming unmanageable that it is now not a clear
"slam dunk" to decide what is more "beneficial" - paying it off in full or suffering the fallout from some
form of default. No matter what the US government decides to do, no doubt, it will be more "beneficial" to its core
constituents - the international big business interests - and less "beneficial" to the rest of us.