Where are the Questions?

There was a time when newspapers employed journalists, and television newsrooms were filled with reporters. But reporters and journalists ask questions. Above all, and imperatively, questioning those who hold positions of power and influence (for those are the questions which enable a society to remain free), and especially when it involves the spending or committing of the labour of it’s citizens (taxes).

Yesterday, much of the world’s leaders agreed to support the bail out of…wait for it…all of the world’s financiers and by extension themselves.

Canada, for its part, agreed to increase the pool of funds to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) available for world bailouts from it’s current obligation of 2.1 billion dollars, to 11.6 billion dollars, a 5.5 times increase by their own chart.

The extension of this amount of money, or guarantee, without public debate (without public input of any kind that I know of), is unprecedented. So I went to the National Post Online to see what I could find about this horrendous news for Canada’s small businesses from this, the Canadian conservative economic icon….

…nothing.

So I paid a visit to The Star online. Surely, the defender of Canada’s working class would be crying foul over this latest abuse of power…

…only the sound of crickets chirping.

Where are the journalists?

Where are the reporters who used to ask these kinds of questions? They know longer exist in the mainstream newsrooms, where like puppies on the laps of the multinational corporations who have employed them, they sit beside their fellow puppy politicians, happily licking away.

The real truth seekers have moved on to independent venues…

…(thank you, Zero Hedge, for asking these kinds of questions. Go here for the entire article):

We have a few questions:

1) Just where will central banks suddenly find access to over three hundred billion in SDRs (which is what this facility is based on)? Also, we are curious just how this SDR expansion will impact dollar levels. As the dollar is the primary component in the SDR basket (17%), banks will have to sell more dollars than other currencies on a pro rata basis to increase their SDR holdings. What will happen to the DXY when $85 billion new dollars flood the market via assorted CBs but mostly the FRBNY?

2) Who came up with the expansion factor? Why is Japan’s allocation increasing by 18.7x, that of the US by 10.4x, while that of the Bundesbank only by 7.2x? We thought the IMF is more of a eurocentric bailout facility? Why does it fall upon the US taxpayers to disproprtionately bailout Greece?

3) What is the joke with having Greece join the group of new participants? The IMF sure has a sick sense of humor.

4) Curious how this comes the day before Greece is supposed to auction off some ultra-short term debt. If this facility is enacted, watch for socereign credit curves to hit 60 degrees, with near-term risk disappearing, once again courtesy of Joe Sixpack. We hope you pay your taxes by the April 15 deadline.

5) Funny money will galore. At this point nobody will allow anyone or anything to fail.

Here is the full table of old and existing contributors. Congrats US – you are once again leading the charge in the world bailout.