If Greece fails to pay the International Monetary Fund a $1.7 billion debt coming due at the close of business Tuesday—around 6 p.m. EDT—the country will immediately be in arrears to the fund, an event normally known in the financial world as a “default.” The default, which Greece has already warned will happen, would be the first by an advanced economy in the fund’s seven-decade history, as well as the largest single overdue payment. It would also put the new Athens government on a par with a small group of mostly conflict-ravaged debtors that have stiffed the IMF—a short list that includes Afghanistan’s Taliban and ... (full story)