"...a longer-term examination of debt markets reminds us that, throughout human history, regular default is more the rule than the exception. And while sovereign defaults on external, foreign-currency debt are most common, Carmen Reinhart and Kenneth Rogoff demonstrated in a paper released earlier this year...that defaults on domestic debt have happened far more often than might have been expected, particularly in times of severe economic duress." http://www.moneyweek.com/investments/how-safe-are-government-bonds-13986.aspx
Has there ever been the case before with a FIAT world reserve currency, that the nation printing that currency laid waste to all its means of production and buried itself in debt buying imports for yet more debt? I can't think of any. No nation in history has been THAT stupid before, or I'm sure we'd have read about it. But maybe I don't know my history well enough...