Editorial Board
The IMF Is Right About Greece
Any plan to resolve its financial crisis has to involve debt relief.
The Greek debt crisis will do that to you.
Photographer: Adam Berry/Getty ImagesEurope's finance ministers are due to meet Monday in an effort to break the impasse over Greece and its debt. What ought to happen was spelled out last week in a leaked letter from the head of the International Monetary Fund to the group. It wasn't what the ministers wanted to hear.
Managing Director Christine Lagarde said the IMF cannot support a plan of the kind Europe's ministers have been demanding -- a plan that requires promises Greece can't or won't keep and that postpones, yet again, agreement on debt relief. The IMF's implicit threat to withhold its support and walk away from the talks is justified.