Ambrose Evans-Pritchard at the Telegraph takes down the IMF
AEP is out with his latest in an attack on the IMF, saying its credibility and long-term survival are at stake in the showdown with Greece.
He notes that Greece's decision to bundle payments until the end of the month was a technique last used in the 1980s by Zambia.
"In reality it is a warning shot, and a dangerous escalation for all parties," he writes. "The Greeks accuse the IMF of colluding in an EMU-imposed austerity regime that breaches the Fund's own rules and is in open contradiction with five years of analysis by its own excellent research department and chief economist, Olivier Blanchard."
He says the IMF is acting as an "imperialist lackey", which is a strange criticism because that's always what the IMF has been. But he makes a great point in saying the IMF went off the rails when it went to bat for the euro.
"The Fund's mission is to save countries, not currencies or banks, and it certainly should not be doing dirty work for a rich currency union that is fully capable of sorting out its own affairs, but refuses to do so for political reasons," he writes.
He doesn't make the same connection, but the ECB is sliding down the same slippery slope.
