Ken Nelson's Page

In an interview on CNBC, former Fed Chairman Alan Greespan commented upon the efforts of the Federal government to stimulate the economy through Federal spending and QE1 + QE2.  Alan Greespan said that QE2 "had some effect on the exchange rate" (Negatively), but he's "ill-aware of anything that really worked".

  Most individuals recognize that the 5 trillion in deficit spending since Obama took office has not worked.  When President Obama pushed for his first (government) stimulus…

Every month, the Obama administration's Bureau of Labor Statistics releases a report on the US Labor market.  (www.bls.gov.)  The BLS started keeping track of this data in 1939.  I've compared the BLS data with each Presidency since 1939, and tracked the (un)employment data for each month of every Presidency since 1939.

   Barak Obama has DOUBLED the old record for job losses at this point in a Presidency.  Since Obama's election (through May 30th,…

Another interesting issue is education.  In 1974, 66% of NC's budget was spent on education.  Despite passing an "Education Lottery", only 55% of the 2010 budget goes to education.  Clearly NC state government has found other ways to spend the people's money.

  Governments hurt the economy when they stray from their mission and grow too large.  Should the State and local governments of NC be in the alcohol business?  Couldn't the private sector sell alcohol more effeciently. …

In 1974, the NC State Budget was $2,750,988,000 and our population was 5,363,300.  In 2010, the NC budget was $19,898,013,000 up over 7 fold,  But our population had only grown by 77.8% to 9,535,483.  A dollar in 1974 is worth $3.22 in 2010, so if you adjust the budget for population growth and inflation our budget should be $15,764,241,600.  That's 4 Billion less than the 2010 budget!

   This wouldn't be so bad if government were close to the proper size, but that's far from true. …