About Darren Nelson (Edit profile)

Darren Brady Nelson is a CFACT Senior Economist. He is the inventor of applying CPI Minus X (CPI-X) to cutting and controlling state and federal government spending. Mr. Nelson is also a long-time senior adviser to the Heartland Institute, as well as being the former chief economist and board member for LibertyWorks. Articles by him have appeared in the Budget & Tax News, Cayman Financial Review, Climate & Energy News, Concurrences, Daily Caller, Health Care News, Investing News, Quadrant, Red State, School Reform News, Spectator, Townhall, Utility Week, as well as other publications in the U.S. and Australia. He is the author of the book Ten Principles of Regulation & Reform (Connor Court Publishing, 2017) and contributed a chapter to the book Why Competition? (Concurrences, 2024).