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Keith Rankin
Political Economist, Scoop Columnist
Keith Rankin taught economics at Unitec in Mt Albert since 1999. An economic historian by training, his research has included an analysis of labour supply in the Great Depression of the 1930s, and has included estimates of New Zealand's GNP going back to the 1850s.
Keith believes that many of the economic issues that beguile us cannot be understood by relying on the orthodox interpretations of our social science disciplines. Keith favours a critical approach that emphasises new perspectives rather than simply opposing those practices and policies that we don't like.
Keith retired in 2020 and lives with his family in Glen Eden, Auckland.
Keith Rankin - Latest News [Page 19]
Keith Rankin:The Traffic Devil is in the Detail
Friday, 19 April 2002, 9:30 am | Keith Rankin
Auckland's billion dollar traffic problem cannot be resolved so long as there are seen as just two factions spouting the slogans: "complete the motorway network" or "no more motorways". Rather, each roading and public transport project ... More >>
Keith Rankin: Housing In NZ, A Giffen Good?
Thursday, 11 April 2002, 9:10 am | Keith Rankin
In the 19th century, Robert Giffen, an English statistician, noted that Irish peasants demanded more potatoes when the price of potatoes went up. This contradicted the law of demand, one of the most iron of the iron laws of economics. Maybe this is ... More >>
Keith Rankin: A Fraction Too Much Faction?
Thursday, 4 April 2002, 9:42 am | Keith Rankin
A Fraction too much Faction? Keith Rankin, 4 April 2002 Let's imagine the Anderton faction of the Alliance had not found a loophole in their own "electoral integrity" legislation, and, together, had resigned from Parliament. There would be a by-election ... More >>
Keith Rankin: Fiscal Awards
Thursday, 28 March 2002, 9:36 am | Keith Rankin
Congratulations to Peter Jackson and his crew for both the critical and commercial success of The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring . Should The Lord of the Rings have received a tax break from the New Zealand government? And should future ... More >>
Keith Rankin: Autism A 21st Century Pandemic?
Friday, 22 March 2002, 9:52 am | Keith Rankin
If more than 1 in 50 children in the developed world are being diagnosed as autistic, then this is a global public health time-bomb that must be addressed immediately. More >>
Keith Rankin: All Blacked
Thursday, 14 March 2002, 9:55 am | Keith Rankin
Will New Zealand get to host a few matches of Australia's Rugby World Cup in 2003? We are all on tenterhooks. More >>
Keith Rankin: Auckland Traffic And The Public Good
Thursday, 7 March 2002, 9:29 am | Keith Rankin
New Zealanders are at their worst when they are "provincial", using the pejorative sense of that word. First there was that irritating minder of Peter Jackson at the Bafta awards who had to spoil the moment by saying "Up the Mainland" ... More >>
Keith Rankin: Rewriting History and Global Warming
Friday, 1 March 2002, 9:51 am | Keith Rankin
On Sunday Chris Laidlaw, on his radio show (National Radio), said that all except a few "flat earthers" accept that global warming is a reality. More >>
Keith Rankin: Agenda Politics - Our Legacy
Thursday, 21 February 2002, 9:44 am | Keith Rankin
In 1991, Peter Ellis - a childcare worker - was convicted for crimes of child abuse that could not have happened. There was no forensic evidence for any of his "crimes". Nor were there any adult witnesses for crimes that, if they had taken place, would ... More >>
Keith Rankin: Taxing Migrants
Thursday, 14 February 2002, 9:29 am | Keith Rankin
The New Zealand government has rightly apologised to the Chinese community for the discriminatory poll tax that Chinese immigrants had to pay from the 1880s to the 1930s. It is not clear however to what extent the apology is for the iniquities of ... More >>
Keith Rankin: Tactics and Bonus Points
Thursday, 7 February 2002, 10:02 am | Keith Rankin
In all the fuss about Stephen Fleming's tactical decision to concede a bonus point to South Africa in a recent cricket match, the discussion failed to address a couple of important issues. One such issue relates to the use of tactics in general, in ... More >>
Keith Rankin: Perceptions of Inequality
Thursday, 31 January 2002, 9:49 am | Keith Rankin
Many people think that economics is (or should be) a glorification of the market. Leaving aside alternative economics, textbook economics is merely a way of describing market capitalism. Thus, for an economist, the market is neither good nor bad. The ... More >>
Keith Rankin: El Argentino
Sunday, 6 January 2002, 6:54 pm | Keith Rankin
The economic, political and social crisis in Argentina is a wake-up call to the whole world. It's the visible head of a pimple that should eventually prove to be larger than that of September 11. More >>
Keith Rankin: Rankinomics
Thursday, 20 December 2001, 10:58 am | Keith Rankin
I have a website called the Rankin File. The "brand" has now worn thin, however. There are too many Rankin files, as any internet search engine will reveal. More >>
Keith Rankin: Whose Brain Drain?
Thursday, 29 November 2001, 9:26 am | Keith Rankin
When we think of the "Brain Drain" we tend only to think of the emigration of educated New Zealanders. (In the case of emigration to Australia, we include all New Zealanders. Even minimally educated New Zealanders, Sir Robert Muldoon once noted*, ... More >>
Keith Rankin: Left Scenarios
Thursday, 22 November 2001, 8:25 am | Keith Rankin
The Alliance appears to be fracturing. The crisis is partly a result of maintaining the identity of a party which is in government as a minority partner. (The Greens in Germany have similar problems, indeed triggered by the same issue; the war in ... More >>
Keith Rankin: Auckland Traffic Blues
Thursday, 15 November 2001, 9:59 am | Keith Rankin
Auckland has a serious traffic problem. Not congestion. Strangulation. Spaghetti Junction and its tentacles already surround over 200 degrees of the central business district (CBD). This motorway interchange primarily serves to get traffic past the ... More >>
Keith Rankin: American Themes
Thursday, 8 November 2001, 9:34 am | Keith Rankin
There are two enduring themes in American story-telling: the good confederation versus the evil empire, and the little guy (underdog) versus the big guy (overdog). (Microsoft was the overdog that Americans most loved to hate in the 1990s.) In neither story ... More >>
Keith Rankin: Straw Man
Thursday, 1 November 2001, 9:26 am | Keith Rankin
One of the favoured techniques of rhetoric is to describe something that you intuitively disagree with in such a way that your audience will feel obliged to share your disagreement. You construct a straw man for the purpose of knocking him down. More >>
Keith Rankin: Labour Pains
Thursday, 25 October 2001, 9:09 am | Keith Rankin
Last Monday was Labour Day, supposedly a holiday, and a day to reflect on the balance between paid work and its relationship to the other aspects of life. More >>
