Wednesday February 4, 2009, 6:57 pm
Ever since the government decided to spent hundreds of billions of dollars propping up troubled banks, there have been reports of those banks and executives spending funds on extravagant, seemingly gratuitous items.

Whether it was the insurance giant A.I.G. spending $440,000 for a week-long retreat for executives, Merrill Lynch CEO John Thain sinking more than $1 million into office decorations, Bank of America hosting a conference call to help defeat the Employee Free Choice Act, or Wells Fargo organizing (then canceling) a Vegas retreat, head-scratching expenditures seem to be the order of the day.

The Obama administration has pledged more transparency as the TARP program proceeds. But much of the sunlight will come through enterprising journalism. The Huffington Post is invested in following this story, and we need our readers' help.

If you're aware of wasteful or unnecessary spending or instances that call into question the use of TARP funds, please let us know. Tell us what you see and know, what you are hearing in the office or on the street by emailing submissions+waste@huffingtonpost.com. Anonymity is, of course, guaranteed.


The spending of taxpayer money to help resuscitate the nation's
economy is one of the major stories of the year. As such, it demands
extensive scrutiny. This is a request that you help us with the task.

Thursday February 5, 2009, 11:09 am
BLOW THE WHISTLE on $enator$ in Congre$$, too ... Find out WHICH $ENATOR$ voted to remove HEALTH CARE BENEFITS FOR UNEMPLYED ...

Call your $enator$ and ask WHO stripped HEALTH CARE benefits for Unemployed from the Recovery and Reinvestment Act

and if you can't get thru on the phones

go to http://www.senate.gov/
and click on the FIND YOUR SENATORS at the TOP RIGHT HAND SIDE of the web page; locate the email address or the web contact form, fill in the info and send it NOW!

Thursday February 5, 2009, 12:16 pm
Kudos to Huffington Post. Thank you for posting this Blue.
P.S.
Please check your messages

Thursday February 5, 2009, 1:37 pm
Why aren't there hundreds of economists on my TV explaining the stimulus package?

Thursday February 5, 2009, 2:01 pm
NYT leaves planet earth

Friday February 6, 2009, 3:22 am

TARP Bailout Investigation Released: Help Us Dig Through It





The investigator in charge of overseeing the expenditure of TARP funds -- money for banks to stabilize the financial industry -- released his first report Thursday...and outlines a future strategy to encourage transparency and oversight of the program.

Friday February 6, 2009, 5:36 pm
NYC Madam: Wall St. Johns Paid For Sex With Corporate Cards

Sunday February 8, 2009, 2:16 pm
RNC chair: Stimulus jobs aren't real


Republican Rep. Pete Sessions: Taliban Is 'a Model' for How GOP Can Become An 'Insurgency.'»

As John Cole explained this week, "I really don't understand how bipartisanship is ever going to work when one of the parties is insane."

Between sanity and craziness, there is no common ground.

Sunday February 8, 2009, 9:25 pm
Naomi Klein says All of Them Must Go:

Watching the crowds in Iceland banging pots and pans until their government fell reminded me of a chant popular in anti-capitalist circles in 2002: "You are Enron. We are Argentina."

Its message was simple enough. You--politicians and CEOs huddled at some trade summit--are like the reckless scamming execs at Enron (of course, we didn't know the half of it). We--the rabble outside--are like the people of Argentina, who, in the midst of an economic crisis eerily similar to our own, took to the street banging pots and pans. They shouted, "¡Que se vayan todos!" ("All of them must go!") and forced out a procession of four presidents in less than three weeks. What made Argentina's 2001-02 uprising unique was that it wasn't directed at a particular political party or even at corruption in the abstract. The target was the dominant economic model--this was the first national revolt against contemporary deregulated capitalism.

It's taken a while, but from Iceland to Latvia, South Korea to Greece, the rest of the world is finally having its ¡Que se vayan todos! moment.

The stoic Icelandic matriarchs beating their pots flat even as their kids ransack the fridge for projectiles (eggs, sure, but yogurt?) echo the tactics made famous in Buenos Aires. So does the collective rage at elites who trashed a once thriving country and thought they could get away with it. As Gudrun Jonsdottir, a 36-year-old Icelandic office worker, put it: "I've just had enough of this whole thing. I don't trust the government, I don't trust the banks, I don't trust the political parties and I don't trust the IMF. We had a good country, and they ruined it."

In other countries, then, people aren't accepting the destruction with resignation, but making it clear out in the streets that they refuse to be victimized any longer. I realize Americans are fearful, but I am more afraid of what will happen if we don't do the same.

Sunday February 8, 2009, 11:45 pm
Republicans Turn Their Backs On The People Who Have Played By The Rules And Need Help

Monday February 9, 2009, 11:36 pm

Senate Stimulus Raises Debt Limit Over $12 Trillion, HuffPost Reader Finds

Tuesday February 10, 2009, 9:07 pm
IN THE HOT SEAT

Friday February 13, 2009, 3:57 pm

RNC Chair Steele on His Own Party: 'No Reason, None, to Trust Our Words or Our Actions at This Point.'»


Steele: The reality of it is, you are absolutely right. You have absolutely no reason, none, to trust our word or our actions at this point. So, yeah, it's going to be an uphill climb.

Friday February 13, 2009, 8:48 pm
Stimulus Package Contains Strict New Restrictions On Executive Pay
Goes Beyond What Obama Admin Imposed Last Week