As chief executive officer of the U.S. Government, President Barack Obama, in order to fulfill a promise of fiscal responsability, has set out to achieve unprecedented transparency and efficiency of government. In effect, in Paul Light's terms, Obama has initiated a fully mobilized "war on waste" under the "watchful eye" of legislators, auditors, whistleblowers, and citizens who will be provided with unprecedented amounts of information on government operations. He had promised as much during his campaing for the presidency, but the urgency of these priorities was greatly increased by the speed and depth of the financial and economic crisis, which has necessitated mind-boggling levels of government spending and indebtedness. The unqualified commitments to efficiency and transparency have about them an aroma of inexperience and naiveté, however. Public managers across the executive branches of every level of government confront the challenge of spending unprecedented increases in their budgets rapidly but wisely, crafting long-term investments that have high short-term economic impact, often with organizational capacity that was already inadequate and cannot be augmented rapidly. And thay must document what they are doing and why in unprecedented detail. Whether a more effective infraestructure of administrative structures, technologies, and practices, and a government that works, materialize from a crisis-dominated, private-sector inspired, and still uncoordinated, blitz of reforms remains to be seen.