Critics attack IMF’s standstill proposal

Anne Krueger, the IMF’s recently installed first deputy managing director, provoked consternation when she addressed the National Economists Club annual dinner in Washington in November. Krueger used the occasion to propose new protections for countries that halt payment on their outstanding debt. Complaining that a “gaping hole” remained in the international financial system, she said: “We lack incentives to help countries with unsustainable debts resolve them promptly and in an orderly way.