The Fed and more..

Since this is my first day doing this, I have alot of fresh thoughts, but this one has been with me for a while.  The Fed has a hard job.  Some folks like Ron Paul think they are evil and others think they are the greatest financial bankers in the world.  The truth always lies in the middle, but I just dont believe the evidence is there anymore that the Fed is truly independent anymore and furthermore I think this constant grind for lower rates etc will eventually doom this recovery. 

The housing bubble and all the overpriced mortgages and under-priced homes has never been purged from the market.  A true cleansing of the housing market has been replaced by foreclosures, people being unable to refinance and people with very good credit scores being able to cut their mortgage rates.  People may read this and say "@StretchNelson - are you saying that is bad and the government should do more to help the people underwater"...NO!!!  What I am saying is that you never can truly have a recovery when so many people are still in a bad place.  We can put duct tape over the situation by artificially keeping rates low (and thus reducing the government's borrowing costs tremendously) or we can let the market set the appropriate rate of interest, within reason, that allows the market to clear and also allow folks to not have their money be deflated by low-interest rates and increasing food and gas prices (oh yeah - per the government that is not happening).

Anyway, the main point here is that people seem to think the Fed and the government can do this forever. I guess we are just lucky that Europe is so bad that we look good....kind of?

Energy

I sit here typing something on Energy fully realizing that we are the most hypocritical people in the world.  We want big cars, big homes, big everything...but we don't want to use the energy we have here in the US.   I am fully for clean energy and anything that reduces our reliance on foreign energy, but let's be real America.  There is no silver bullet and we need to realize this.  I want leaders to stop telling us that we will be fine with some solar panels, Saudi Arabian Oil and no new power plants.....Get real people and create a plan.

Here is one:

1) Drill for Oil in the US.  Do it safely and responsibly like the whole world does (Check out Brazil!)

2) Build safe nuclear power in places where earthquakes don't happen to prevent Japan scenario (France has 70% of it power from nukes...who would have thought)

3) Fund real clean technology that will work and be able to installed in people homes affordably

4) Use our stockpile of Natural gas to slowly move away from gas in cars

COMPROMISE AND WORK TOGETHER!  You would never run your own company like the government....keep that in mind as it will be a common theme with this blog....

Here we go...

Here we go!  This is the official blog of Stretch Nelson (follow me on twitter at @StretchNelson).  We are going to discuss practical solutions to real problems.  I am passionate about politics and the process of making our lives in this country and the world better.  Our leaders have failed us for years for not having the courage to make decisions on fiscal soundness or real reforms that will make our country better.  Come join the conversation because honesty is the only way to make real change!