Obama’s weekly address contained one juicy nugget about his pledge for transparency. I’m trying not to get my hopes up, but this part of the speech did just that:

Instead of politicians doling out money behind a veil of secrecy, decisions about where we invest will be made public, and informed by independent experts whenever possible.

The information will eventually live at www.recovery.gov. Sounds like a very good plan in theory, but I’ll withhold judgement until we get more details. Will transparency be retroactive, include previous investments, loan collateral, everything? I hope so. After all, Mr. Obama is a constitutional scholar. And nothing so far seems to gel with the constitution.

It’ll be interesting to see how bank stocks react on Monday morning. I think Obama has investors spooked about banks, and rightly so. Disclosing details about these guys could mean some common shareholders get wiped out. That’s what happens in an open, efficient market.

Banks crashed during Mr. Obama’s inauguration speech (related post here). He made pointed comments about greed, accountability, and bailouts. Not good things for common shareholders of banks with anything to hide. His decisions could dictate the future (or lack thereof) for some banks. A few days later banks spiked, after Geithner, who is perceived as a banking-insider, sailed through confirmation. That’s enough for now.