A hot new site, Bailout Sleuth is making waves by tracking where your TARP tax payer assisted bail out money is going. The site is run by Chris Cary and while he is just getting started, what is very cool is that he has the time, and the knowledge to dig through government contracts to find out how your money is being spent. I was tipped to this site via MSN Money.

The site covers everything, from how TARP dollars are being spent to the Auto Bailout package that will happen sometime this year. What makes this interesting is that they are also addressing the issues that they are having getting unredacted copies of information from the Treasury department, where dollar amounts have been blacked out.

Meanwhile, Bloomberg News reported Friday that the Federal Reserve rejected its latest request for records about which financial institutions got more than $2 trillion in emergency loans from that quasi-government agency, and what assets those companies pledged as collateral. Bloomberg said the Federal Reserve noted that the United States is facing an unprecedented financial crisis, and that “loss in confidence in and between financial institutions can occur with lightning speed and devastating effects.” Source: Bailoutsleuth

This is probably going to end up being an important source of information as we dive deeper into the amount of money given out to major banking firms. What is something to note though is that if Bloomberg is having problems getting information out of the Government, then odds are likely that Bailout Sleuth is also going to have problems. Since these are taxpayer dollars, we will probably have to wait and see what happens when Bush is out of office, and Obama walks in. It is worth watching to see how the rules or information sharing will change, if it changes at all.

Another thing to note, MSN Money combed through the site, and came up with the 10 worst bail out boondoggles that is also worth seeing and reading. Odds are likely that this is going to annoy a number of people who want their tax payer money spent responsibly.

Tags: bailout, sleuth, boondoggle, where your taxpayer dollars are going, interesting, politics