Tonight the Senate approved a short-term extension of the debt ceiling (through December 3). The House will reconvene next Tuesday to vote on the bill. Janet Yellen, Secretary of the Treasury, says the United States "has always paid its bills on time" and has never defaulted on its debt. That is not true. The US government defaulted on demand notes in 1862, defaulted on gold bonds in 1933, defaulted in 1968 by refusing to redeem silver certificate paper dollars for silver dollars and defaulted in 1971 by ending its promise to redeem dollars held by foreign governments for gold under the Bretton Woods Agreement. Ya hear me, Janet?