March to Default

The Dutch Experience

Last week, via our friends at Zero Hedge, we came across as article by Simon Black of Sovereign Man titled, The U.S. Government Now Has Less Cash Than Google.  Inside, Black details the invention of the government bond in 1517 Amsterdam and the long term ramifications for the Dutch government.  Here we turn to Black for edification:

“It caught on slowly.  But eventually government bonds became an extremely popular asset class.  Secondary markets developed where people who owned bonds could sell them to other investors.  Even simple coffee shops turned into financial exchanges where investors and traders would buy and sell bonds.  In time, the government realized that its creditworthiness was paramount, and the Dutch developed a reputation as being a rock-solid bet.

“This practice caught on across the world.  International markets developed.  English investors bought French bonds.  French investors bought Dutch bonds.  Dutch investors bought American bonds.  (By 1803, Dutch investors owned a full 25 percent of U.S. federal debt.  By comparison, the Chinese own about 5.5 percent of U.S. debt today.)

“Throughout it all, debt levels kept rising.  The Dutch government used government bonds to live beyond its means, borrowing money to fund everything imaginable– wars, infrastructure, and ballooning deficits.  But people kept buying the bonds, convinced that the Dutch government will never default.

“Everyone was brainwashed; the mere suggestion that the Dutch government would default was tantamount to blasphemy.  It didn’t matter that the debt level was so high that by the early 1800s the Dutch government was spending 68 percent of tax revenue just to service the debt.

“Well, in 1814 the impossible happened: the Dutch government defaulted.  And the effects were devastating.

“In their excellent book The First Modern Economy, financial historians Jan De Vries and Ad Van der Woude estimate that the Dutch government default wiped out between 1/3 and 1/2 of the country’s wealth.

“That, of course, is just one example.  History is full of events that people thought were impossible.  And yet they happened.  Looking back, they always seem so obvious.”

Amsterdamsche Wisselbank, a.k.a. the Bank of Amsterdam. The bank’s history is deeply intertwined with the Dutch march toward default in 1814. When the bank was originally founded, it was rightly considered the soundest bank in Europe – it was 100% reserved and for a long time its notes were indeed “as good as gold” and were accepted in payment all over Europe. Holland’s downfall was closely tied to the decision to abuse the bank’s hard-won reputation by surreptitiously forcing it to adopt fractional reserve banking in order the fund the government (in particular, in order to fund its wars).

Painting by Gerrit Adriaenszoon Berckheyde

March to Default

Like the Dutch several hundred years ago, everyone believes it’s impossible for the U.S. government to default on its debt obligations.  U.S. Treasuries are considered the safest investment in the world.

Nonetheless, a series of events are coming down the turnpike in such rapid succession that Washington will be incapable of dealing with them.  Before Congress can say knife, irreparable damage will be done to the government’s financial standing.

No doubt, the great story of our time, that few seem to appreciate, is the increasing likelihood the U.S. government will default on its debt before the year is over.  Of course, this isn’t a certainty.  But by simply connecting a dot or two, one can construct a highly plausible scenario where this happens.

Federal Debt: Total Public Debt 1970-2017

.

The federal debtberg. As Ludwig von Mises noted: “The long-term public and semi-public credit is a foreign and disturbing element in the structure of a market society. Its establishment was a futile attempt to go beyond the limits of human action and to create an orbit of security and eternity removed from the transitoriness and instability of earthly affairs. What an arrogant presumption to borrow and to lend money for ever and ever, to make contracts for eternity, to stipulate for all times to come!”