US debt cannot realistically become unrollable while the dollar remains the global reserve currency

Evidence

If the United States ever gets to the point that it cannot roll over its debt, the supposed big fear, we can safely assume that all other sovereign debt alternatives are already dead. The United States prints the reserve asset (the dollar) that all other countries need to earn in order to conduct international trade. No other country gets to do this. Regardless of ratings agency downgrades, the US dollar is still the global reserve currency, and the fact that there are no credible alternatives (the Europeans are busy self-immolating their alternative, the euro) tilts the balance even more in favor of the United States. US debt is still the most attractive horse in the glue factory, period. — Mark Blyth, Austerity, 54

Categorization

• DEFINE: Explains ‘reserve currency’ and its exorbitant privilege — US can always roll over debt because other countries must hold dollars for trade.
• XREF: Connects to Mattei’s work on austerity as ideology; also to the ‘exorbitant privilege’ argument about dollar hegemony in international political economy. — connects to: A sovereign-currency state can never become insolvent in its own currency; A sovereign currency makes state insolvency in that currency impossible. — Fanny Pigeaud_ Ndongo Samba Sylla, Africa’s Last Colonial Currency, 365; A sovereign currency makes a state incapable of defaulting on its own obligations (+1 more)
• CANDY: “US debt is still the most attractive horse in the glue factory, period” — a pithy, fun line standing alone.

Broader Connections

• A sovereign-currency state can never become insolvent in its own currency #corroborates (0.92)
• A sovereign currency makes state insolvency in that currency impossible. #corroborates (0.92) — Fanny Pigeaud_ Ndongo Samba Sylla, Africa’s Last Colonial Currency, 365
• A sovereign currency makes a state incapable of defaulting on its own obligations #corroborates (0.90)