IMF abdication on Greece

This guest post is from Peter Doyle, an economist and former IMF staffer

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In an otherwise sound critique of Mr. Varoufakis’ list of proposals for Greek government policies last week, Mme. Lagarde’s letter to Mr. Dijsselbloem contains an additional, unremarked, but revealing element. After saying that, in the IMF’s view, the Greek list was sufficiently comprehensive to be a valid starting point for a successful conclusion of the review, she added:

… but a determination in this regard should of course rest primarily on an assessment by Member States themselves and by the relevant European institutions.