Great topic. The Cyprus event was triggered by a bank default and every entity with more than 100,000 euros in their account got a 40% haircut. While the US could default at some time in the future, the real debt owed to entities other than the US government & their various departments (social security, medicare and so on) is around 8 trillion dollars. The debt to the US government departments could be forgiven at any time, granted - not painlessly but easily enough that most citizens would be unaffected. Besides, the current amount of dollars tied up in US savings is $7 trillion, not large enough to risk civil outrage. There are current rumors about the size of all retirement plans in the US, which, at $21 trillion, is a very juicy target for a government that spends more than it brings in. All it will take is another market correction like 2007-2008 and the feds will ride up on their white horse proclaiming that investing is too risky for us peons and the feds will take your account and wisely invest it for you at a gauranteed return of 3% or so, kind of like an annuity. then they can pay you back in inflation adjusted dollars that are cheap to print. This is what you should fear.