The Whitehouse has announced that it will publish a record of all spending as part of the $787 billion economic package signed into law by Barrack Obama this week. the entire spending record will be visible on Recovery.gov, a site that “lets you, the (american) taxpayer, figure out where the money from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act is going”.

This is a novel excercise in transparency and the public nature of the program is likely to go a long way to ruling out waste and inefficiency. In a video statement available to view on the site President obama states that “The important decisions about where taxpayer dollars will be invested will be yours to scrutinize.”

There is a full FAQ on the site: http://www.recovery.gov/?q=content/frequently-asked-questions