Why isn't USA on the list?
Usa is not there as a) most of the debt is in dollars and they can just print enough any time they want to pay it off...This will of course have serious effects on inflation and make everyone holding dollars poorer as they would need to pay 2 or 10 or 100 times more for anything that they buy..and b) USA or any other country is never really bankrupt as they still have land , buildings roads/ resources and lots of other stuff that they can sell or lease to pay debt..
When most people call a country bankrupt or close to bankruptcy what the really mean is they are in or close to a sovereign default.. i.e they cannot or will not( under existing terms of their debt, which will ALWAYS eventually be renegotiated) pay obligations when they fall due..
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sovereign_default
Some countries can deal with the renegotiation better than others.
Normally the effect is that everybody gets poorer and often they introduce currency controls and or bank raids high taxes etc by the State like in Cyprus so the rich have a big share of the burden of solving the mess the politicians have handed the Country.
Where bitcoin comes in is to avoid / evade effects like that you can change your local currency deposited in banks or under your mattress to bitcoin..send it to places like the caymen Islands and reconvert to fiat to safely deposit it in a bank out of reach of your (naughty) Govt .
Before the advent or bitcoin this process was done by buying $,s on the black market at 10 to 50% extra. Putting them in suitcases and travelling abroad hoping not to get caught.. Bitcoin makes the process sooooo much easier and cheaper.
