How secure are the Treasury bonds in the trust funds?
Any bond represents a promise by the borrower to pay the lender. In the past, some private borrowers and even nations have defaulted on their debts. Enron, Pan Am, Polaroid, and Bethlehem Steel went bankrupt. Debt issued by Argentina and Ecuador can be purchased for far less than its face value because many investors doubt that it will be repaid. And bonds issued by the Confederate States of America are suitable for framing, but for little else; they will never be repaid. The United States, too, could default on its debt. The country could lose a war or a plague could decimate the population. Or our government could simply announce “We will no longer honor our promises to the Central Bank of China or the Federal Reserve Bank or the Social Security trust funds or anybody unlucky enough to have trusted us at our word.” How likely is it that the U.S. government would renege on its promises to its creditors? One way to determine the likelihood of such a thing happening is to see how Treasu
