Business

With stocks at record highs, seemingly proving that everything must be awesome in the world, Chris Watling, chief executive of Longview Economics, shocked CNBC on Friday by reminding them that "this is undoubtedly the lowest quality economic recovery we have seen globally... full stop."

The reason is simple, Watling continued,

"the economic model is deeply flawed and the system in the west is deeply flawed, particularly in the English speaking part of the world and it needs to change."

Authored by Shaun Bradley via TheAntiMedia.org,

Visa recently announced its new Cashless Challenge program, which offers $10,000 to restaurants willing to transition into accepting only digital payments.  As the largest credit card processor in the U.S., it’s no surprise Visa is spearheading this campaign.

When the chief of a country's biggest stock exchange is warning that the central bank is buying too many equities, then you know you have a problem. Japan Exchange Group Inc. Chief Executive Officer Akira Kiyota has become the latest member of Japan’s financial establishment to publicly criticize the BOJ for its longrunning ETF buying program, according to Bloomberg.

In a comment sure to stir up questions over dollar hegemony (and new world order conspiracy thoughts), IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde admitted during an event today in Washington that The International Monetary Fund could be based in Beijing in a decade.

As Reuters reports, Lagarde said that such a move was "a possibility" because the Fund will need to increase the representation of major emerging markets as their economies grow larger and more influential.

Several hours before the US stock market opened on Monday, the commodity world was shaken by an unexpected surge in crude options trades, with traders noting that "someone is either moving positions, blown up or getting out of commodities. MASSIVE amount of blocks going through in crude options."

Someone is either moving positions, blown up or getting out of commodities. MASSIVE amount of blocks going through in #crude #options.#OOTT

— Mark Scullion (@mscullion) July 24, 2017