This is a little old, but for those of you keeping score at home, The Atlantic last month put out a great way to visualize what's going on with both the bailout and the Recovery. The graphic does an excellent job of showing how the bailout, while huge at some $787 billion, is almost puny compared to the trillions of dollars the Federal Reserve could be pumping into the system through asset purchases. It's always good to keep some perspective on the situation, and graphics like this help explain why we think it's important to make sure the Fed programs are held to the same transparency and accountability standards as the Recovery Act programs.

To celebrate the first 100 days of the Recovery Act, the Vice President's office released a report on May 27 called "100 Days, 100 Projects," highlighting 100 projects funded under the Recovery Act. The Administration is calling the report a "snapshot" of how the Recovery Act is affecting people all across the nation. And "snapshot" is the perfect term for this report, since it gives us a quick glimpse into the information the Administration has collected so far, but it leaves us with more questions than answers.

Yesterday, the conference committee assembled to hash out a final weapons acquisition reform bill released the new legislation and a summary report after the two sides came to agreement on Tuesday over the few issues of contention. We are currently going through the language of the bill to assess the final product, but it looks as though the conferees did not strengthen the potentially disastrous Murray amendment, and chose an independent cost analyst reporting to the Secretary of Defense over just an assistant to the secretary. If we catch anything appalling, we will post it, or, if you read through and see anything, please post your comments.

The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities published an in-depth report on Tuesday examining "a little-known provision in the federal economic recovery package" that could end up costing state governments $5.5 billion in business income tax revenues. Do not panic; luckily, states can avoid this disastrous loss of revenue by making some simple changes to their tax laws. Some states have already done so. Good for you, Florida, Maryland and Minnesota.