IMF downgrades outlook for US economy

The International Monetary Fund is downgrading its forecast for the U.S. economy this year and says America should raise the minimum wage to help the poor and offer paid maternity leave to encourage more women to work.

War On Cash Escalates: China Readies Digital Currency, IMF Says “Extremely Beneficial”

Remember when Bitcoin and its digital currency cohorts were slammed by authorities and written off by the elite as worthless? Well now, as the war on cash escalates, officials from The IMF to China are seeing the opportunity to control the world’s money through virtual (cash-less) currencies. Just as we warned most recently here, state wealth control is the goal and, as Bloomberg reports, The PBOC is targeting an early rollout of China’s own digital currency to “boost control of money” and none other than The IMF’s Christine Lagarde added that “virtual currencies are extremely beneficial.”

By way of background, as we explained previously, What exactly does a “war on cash” mean?

It means governments are limiting the use of cash and a variety of official-mouthpiece economists are calling for the outright abolition of cash. Authorities are both restricting the amount of cash that can be withdrawn from banks, and limiting what can be purchased with cash.

These limits are broadly called “capital controls.”

Why Now?

What happens if Greece can’t pay its debts?

The standoff between a leftwing government and the financial powers of the EU is near to breaking point. What if the worst happens?

This time it’s real: Greece has wriggled out of looming national bankruptcy on numerous occasions over the past five years, but now it has just a few weeks left before it must sign a new debt deal with its eurozone partners and the IMF – or find itself heading for an exit door that leads back to the drachma.

On Friday, after a meeting of eurozone finance ministers in the Latvian capital Riga, the signs were ominous. Malta’s finance minister Edward Scicluna, said: “I would describe today’s meeting as a complete breakdown in communication with Greece.”