Web Wealth: The bailout

It is getting harder and harder to keep score on the expanding number and vast size of the programs to bail out, rescue, recover, and otherwise save the economy. These sites could help.

Watching out. OMB Watch is a nonprofit watchdog group whose mission statement says it "exists to increase government transparency and accountability," among other things. It has been advocating loudly for maximum disclosure on bailout and stimulus spending. The group worried in a recent posting that the big stimulus law may not mandate "the level of detail that may be needed to collect and disseminate information about the type of jobs that are created or preserved, the wages paid to workers, or information about who may be getting such jobs." OMB Watch says it is coordinating an effort to create something to be called Bailout Watch, along with the Center for Economic and Policy Research, the Economic Policy Institute, OpentheGovernment.org, the Project on Government Oversight, and Taxpayers for Common Sense.

Stimulus central. This site, introduced by President Obama last week, is supposed to be where you go to find out how the stimulus money is really being spent in your state and community. But it's vague on details so far. Officials said that's because it'll take time to push the money through the pipelines and into the economy. Stay tuned. The site is also soliciting personal stories of "how the economic crisis and this recovery program are affecting you."

Bank bailout. A Treasury Department Web site has also been set up to show how the $700 billion bank bailout fund is being spent.

Where it went. USAspending.gov is another help in tracking where money goes, and it has figures for recent years, not just for the data on the current crisis. Information on all the trillions of dollars spent by the federal government on contracts and grants, subcontracts and subgrants, flows into this Web site. There are different ways to search, too. For example, you can hunt for federal contracts awarded by state or by congressional district.

Contact staff writer Reid Kanaley at 215-854-5114 or rkanaley@phillynews.com.