There are some obvious candidates for what would be casualties if Greece exits the euro, most obviously Greece and the German, Dutch, and Luxembourger banks that extended too much credit to the Greek government. Mohammed El-Erian points out that another, less obvious casualty would be the International Monetary Fund:
All sides are working hard to prevent Greece from defaulting on its debt obligations to the International Monetary Fund — and with good reason: Such an outcome would have dire consequences not only for Greece and Europe but also for the international monetary system.
The problem with his op-ed is that he’s saying it as though it would be a bad thing. The IMF is not a monetary sovereign. It’s dependent on big countries that are for its backstop ability. In other words it’s only nominally the “lender of last resort”. The big monetary sovereigns are. The unelected, unanswerable, and irresponsible IMF allows big countries to behave recklessly while insulating them from the political consequences of their folly.
