When spending is rushed out the door, mistakes are often made. The White House is doing all it can – including the launch of yet another website to track stimulus spending – to ensure its latest plans do not result in the funding of embarrassing bridges to nowhere.

On that measure the stimulus plans of Barack Obama appear to be working. “You haven’t heard a bunch of scandals – knock on wood,” the US president said yesterday, to officials’ nervous laughter. But the prospect is no laughing matter.