Did the USA go bankrupt in 1933?  There's no official record of such a thing happening.  In a footnote at http://www.rogermwilcox.com/debuck.html , it says

"An obscure conspiracy theory making its way around "sovereignty" circles is that the U.S. Treasury Department went bankrupt in 1933 and had all its assets transferred to the Federal Reserve, or the International Banking Conspiracy, or the Bavarian Illuminati, or whomever. This theory appeared in, among other places, a formerly-electronic book called The Federal Zone¹⁴ by Mitch Modeleski⁴, in which he claimed to have evidence for it but failed to disclose any of this evidence. Under this theory, the new organization created a fake front called "The Department of the Treasury" (or sometimes it's "The Treasury Department" without a "U.S." in front of it), whose name sounds like the real U.S. Treasury Department to those dupes out there who don't know the "real" story. And it's this privately owned Treasury Department that uses the IRS to collect your money. To this assertion, I must reply: Then why does it say "United States Treasury" at the top of my IRS refund checks?"

So this book appears to be the source of that rumor, and there's nothing on public record about it.  What did happen in 1933 was that Chapter 9 was added to the bankruptcy code allowing cities and towns to file for bankruptcy.  Under the previous code, they couldn't file for bankruptcy because they can't sell off all their assets.  Cities can't sell off their fire engines and water plants  and what not.  Chapter 9 does not apply to states or the Federal Government.  State and Federal Government are still simply not allowed to file for bankruptcy.  But cities can.

So in addition to the above book that makes some far out claims, it could be that the rumor that the USA went bankrupt was based on passing chapter 9.  Someone may have misunderstood what they read.  There are some people out there that only understand about 10% of what they read because they don't think very deeply and they read some thing and get pass on a very twisted version of what they read.

But no, the US Government has never gone bankrupt.

It is, however, in enough debt that is refinanced daily - even hourly - that it can be said that foreign creditors have too much influence on US Economic policy.  If the US went to war against China, they'd probably stop financing our debt, and we'd have to default on payments for some services.  A choice would have to be made on what to default on.  But the President and/or Congress would make that choice, not a judge.  In bankruptcy court, a judge makes that decision. This is why State and Federal Governments cannot file for bankruptcy, because it would shift the balance of power from who our Constitution says makes those decisions to a judge.

What if we wanted to go to war against a country, and China told the US they would stop financing our debt if we did?  Our debt situation is a serious problem, but the USA has never filed for bankruptcy.

Shalom,

Joe