Like many of you, I can't help but be amazed at the economic state of the U.S., and perhaps more to the point, the measures being attempted to cure it. Back when the first bailout money was given out in the fall, I tried to find out how much, who was getting it, etc., and quickly realized that it's no small feat keeping up with it all. And since then, it's only gotten more complex. Not only that, but there are huge chunks of bailout money that fall outside of the TARP, for example, that get almost no attention from the mainstream media.
With all this in mind, I set out to demystify the bailout as much as possible. The end result is an iPhone application called Bailout Watch that tracks every dollar, showing exactly who got each pile of bailout cash. But tallying the amounts and naming names wasn't enough - I realized that the numbers are staggering, especially when held up against history. So a major part of the application provides a visual comparison of the bailout to other expensive endeavors in American history, such as the New Deal and World War II.
Finally, it occurred to me that a huge part of the public frustration with the bailout is not feeling as if you have a voice that's being heard. So I added poll questions that you can answer and then quickly get a read on what other people think about the bailout. I'll be rolling out new poll questions regularly, as well as pushing live updates of bailout data to the application.
It's your money, after all. Now you can use your iPhone to keep an eye on where it's going!