A short YouTube commentary by Ndubuisi 'Andy' Egwim arguing that the common belief "bonds are risk free" is false. The speaker cites historical sovereign bond defaults — stating that in the past 60 years 151 countries have defaulted — and mentions examples including Venezuela, Argentina, Mexico, Russia, and Ghana to illustrate the point.
I've had a lot of financial advisors or people, financial educators on YouTube. I guess I'm one of them now who say bonds are risk free. That is a fallacy that is born out of lack of study or lack of knowledge of the financial markets or economic history. Bonds are not risk free. In the last 60 years, 151 sovereign countries have defaulted on their bonds. What default means is that they said we can't pay you or we wouldn't pay you. It's usually we can't pay you. And in case you think those countries are only Venezuela because I keep calling Venezuela, I hope I don't end up one day in Venezuela. And the government security thing, they want to have a chat with me. But Venezuela obviously on the list, but there's Argentina, Mexico, Russia, there's obviously Ghana. A few other countries have in the past said, you know what, this year we can't pay you.
