Today's International Monetary Fund (and, to a lesser degree, the World Bank) recall Talleyrand's description of France's Bourbon kings: having learned nothing and forgotten nothing. At a time when rich countries like the United States are running deficits of 12 percent of GDP because of the global financial meltdown, the IMF has been telling countries like Latvia and Ukraine, which did not start the crisis but have turned to the IMF to help combat it, that they must balance their budgets if they want aid.