Uhhh yes true. Read or listen to the story again. A default is failure to make a payment in the TIME REQUIRED to do so.
That's called a technical default, not a full fledged default. They still repaid every penny owed. That builds faith and trust in the issuer and is the reason the US can issue those immense sums. What will happen to the currency in the future is a different topic but buffet is right, the US will never default on its obligations.
in his lifetime - which probably, at best, is 5 more years. Too bad for Buffett Golden Coral, the buffet king, is privately owned.
Uncle Sam defaulted on debt payments before: 1) "when the U.S. Treasury failed to make timely payments to some small investors in the spring of 1979, some dubbed the incident a “mini-default.” In late April and early May 1979, about 4,000 Treasury checks for interest payments and for the redemption of maturing securities held by individual investors worth an estimated $122 million were not sent on time.75 Foregone interest due to the delays was estimated at $125,000 2) With no consensus between the political parties, the government of the ... bonds, the U.S. Treasury technically defaulted on November 9, 1814. 3) Americas United States 1780 Devaluation of the Continental dollar to 1/40 of face value[19] 4) Americas United States 1790 Crisis began in 1782. Ended by the Compromise of 1790 and the Funding Act of 1790.[20][21] 5) Americas United States 1798 The United States ceased payment of its debt to the overthrown Kingdom of France, prompting the Quasi-War. 6) Americas United States 1862 The Greenback Default[22 China also did three times I think. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_sovereign_debt_crises