The article argues that sovereign default, or debt restructuring, is a common practice among governments and is often portrayed in a negative light. It debunks four myths surrounding sovereign debt restructuring: (1) avoiding restructuring is always the best course of action, (2) access to external credit markets depends on being current on commercial external debt, (3) commercial debt constitutes a small fraction of total public external debt, so restructuring it does not bring significant benefits, and (4) restructuring will result in loss of financing from international financial institutions. The article concludes that the biggest obstacle to debt restructuring is political, not economic, and that if done in an orderly manner, it can lead to conserving foreign reserves and securing debt relief from official creditors.