Tranparency of spending

[Brenda]

In addiition to spending on physical infrastructure, the new administration should consider creating a cyber-infrastructure that would create transparency and acountability, and enable synergy between investments made by federal, state, and local governments and the private sector. Investments in infrastructure, both physical and cyber, should be viewed as a portfolio. The objectives, cost, payoff and risk of each element should be monitored and reported, both individually and in the context of the portfolio. It is unreasonable to expect that every investment will meet its objectives, but without monitoring we have little hope of tuning the system.

[Stephen Baker]

That's true, Brenda. And this transparency is vital in the age of Bernie Madoff, and so many others. Most taxpayers, unfortunately, are going to start out suspecting that this money will be misspent and that people all the way up the line will have their hands in the till. Even before building the cyber-infrastructure you describe, the government should set up a vigorous and powerful watchdog group to monitor all this spending and ferret out waste. Harry Truman headed up such an effort during WWII and accomplished quite a bit.

But as far as specifics, how much would this cyber infrastructure you describe cost, and how long would it take to set up? How many jobs would it create? Any ideas?