In the darkest days of the Great Depression, President Franklin D. Roosevelt, with support from Congress and the Supreme Court, agreed to wipe out more than 40 percent of public and private debts. With that decisive action, the United States staved off bankruptcy and began to claw its way back to stability and, eventually, prosperity. But could the default scenario repeat itself—especially now that the United States is shouldering about $22 trillion of debt, plus tens of trillions more in Medicare, Social Security, and unfunded state and local pension obligations? UCLA Anderson international economist Sebastian Edwards, author of American Default: The Untold Story of FDR, the Supreme Court, and the Battle Over Gold, addressed that question in a conversation with moderator Warren Olney, host of KCRW’s “To the Point,” during a Zócalo/UCLA Anderson event titled “Could the United States Ever Go Bankrupt?” at The RedZone at Gensler in downtown Los Angeles.
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