Despite bulging debt everywhere, the IMF is struggling to be helpful

IN THE ONCE-BUSTLING streets around the IMF’S headquarters in Washington, DC, you can hardly spot a soul these days. Soul-searching is also keeping officials busy inside the building. With government debt ballooning everywhere, many continue to criss-cross the globe, talking with countries that can still borrow and coaxing creditors into granting relief to those who cannot. But the world’s lender of last resort is hampered by conflict between its members—just as rising interest rates threaten to cause a big bang of defaults.