A Way to Defuse the World Debt Bomb

The International Monetary Fund is pursuing a misguided "solution" to the world debt crisis that could push shaky borrowers over the precipice of default. As a condition for granting emergency loans that troubled nations need to pay interest to private banks, the IMF insists that the borrowers slash imports or boost exports. This prescription differs hardly at all from the beggar-thy-neighbor policies that destroyed world trade in the 1930s.