IMF has betrayed its mission in Greece, captive to EMU creditors

``Greece's public debt is 180pc of GDP. The loans are in a currency that the country does not control. It is therefore foreign currency debt. The IMF knows that Greece cannot possibly pay this down by draconian austerity -- the policy already implemented for five years with such self-defeating effects -- and the longer it pretends otherwise, the more its authority drains away... This would be justifiable (sort of) if the other side of the usual IMF bargain were available: debt relief and devaluation. This how IMF programmes normally work: impose tough reforms but also wipe the slate clean on debt and restore crippled countries to external viability.''