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.

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.

It seems that one of the themes running through the recovery effort is the (relatively) blazing speed of the Recovery Act as it passed through Congress versus the considerably slower pace of Recovery Act funds disbursement from Washington. Last week, the New York Times reported that only a "sliver" of the stimulus money has been distributed ($36.8 billion has been disbursed so far, according to the latest data from Recovery.gov), most of which was in the form of one-time Social Security checks, Medicaid supplements, and unemployment benefits. But while the rate and types of spending were prescribed by law -- $115 billion in spending was appropriated through the end of September of this year -- other factors are a slowing the rate of fund disbursal into the economy.