One of the many bright spots of last week's Fall 2012 Depository Library Conference -- the notes and proceedings will soon be posted on the desktop -- was the announcement by the Government Printing Office (GPO) that GPO and US Department of the Treasury are partnering on a project to bring historic digitized Treasury publications onto the FDsys platform. This is a great step by GPO to provide a platform for Federal agencies to publish their historically relevant publications for better access to the public.

The U.S. Government Printing Office (GPO) and the U.S. Department of Treasury have partnered on a pilot project to make historical digitized content from the Treasury Library available on GPO’s Federal Digital System (FDsys). Through the pilot project, Treasury Reporting Rates of Exchange, 1956-2005, which list the exchange rates of foreign currencies based on the dollar, are now available on FDsys. Over the next year, additional historical documents within the Treasury’s library collection will be made available on FDsys through this pilot project.

On yesterday's Rachel Maddow show, I was excited to see the Washington Post's Ezra Klein (hosting for Ms Maddow while she's on vacation) use a government document to make a very cogent point.

In discussing a story by the NY Times "Weather Extremes Leave Parts of U.S. Grid Buckling", Klein opined that now is the perfect time for the Federal government to spend on infrastructure projects. He explained that the US Treasury's Daily Treasury Real Yield Curve Rates are currently negative. That is, people are buying treasury bonds knowing full well that the return will be less than the original price of the treasury bond. Therefore, the US Congress refusing to spend on badly needed infrastructure rejuvenation (see NY Times article above) is "financial mismanagement on an epic scale!"

ProPublica is keeping a running list of banks that are getting money from the Treasury Department bailout:

• Bailout Banks Grows to 26, by Paul Kiel, ProPublica - October 27, 2008

Which banks are getting the Treasury Department’s billions? As we noted earlier today, a slew of regional banks have signed up for the government’s capital injection program, but the government is not saying which banks are getting taxpayer money.

Based on news reports and press releases, we’ve cobbled together a partial list, totaling 26 banks at an overall investment of approximately $160 billion.