Two words: “Unintended Consequences”. As bad ideas go, a default on US debt would be about as bad as possible.
He, in turn, made room for the French in North America, as well as the English.
That's precisely why all those original settlements we claim as the foundation of America got their start at roughly the same time.
Then, after making peace with everyone, reducing his costs for his department of defense, and filling the state coffers with gold and silver, he ended up defaulting on debt held by the competitor states (England, France, Nederland, Belgium, the Italian states) simply because he was UNABLE to raise taxes to pay the debts. At the same time, due to the diligence of Spanish goldhunters Spain had acquired so much gold and silver that the value of those formerly rare commodities dropped like a rock (that's called DEFLATION).
The Spanish Empire then began a long decline ~ couple of centuries in fact.
It's Phillip III's Spain people point to in this debate about debt default, but you don't see the same folks pointing to Spain regarding specie! My goodness, the Spanish milled dollar was the premiere currency for international trade and Spain could grind them out at will.
200 years later, Napoleon Bonaparte, faced with a still bankrupt Spain now one of his staunchest allies, and himself lacking resources due to France having taken on too much debt, forced Spain to sign over its Louisiana Territory to Him, personally. He then sold it to the United States!
The United States continues to have resources ~ just as did Spain. We can use them to do whatever we want, and if that doesn't work out we can always sell them, just like Spain.
Defaulting on the debt is a decision that the President and the SECTRES make by not paying the interest on our loans because there is more than enough cash flow for that.
The debt ceiling limit is a plain bullshit number that the congress uses to fool everyone that they have fiscal responsibility.
The so called debt ceiling limit has been raised over 70 times since the congress came up with the idea to "put a ceiling" on the amount of money that they can borrow.
Markets already discount for future events. The market will already reflect in values based on the probability of the debt ceiling not be extended.
The debt ceiling is like a curfew on an out of control teenager. Neither is seriously considered a rule by any of the parties.
The debt ceiling will be raised. Both political parties will agree on such big spending, that the debt will eventually be repudiated. The repudiation of debt is yet a long way off, time-wise, because people in big government love to keep it big. And many politically active people in the population depend on government for high salaries and other benefits.
Look for more of the same, and there will be more monetization.