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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 2]
Genocide As A Concept: Binary Or Analogue?
Monday, 15 January 2024, 1:46 pm | Keith Rankin
The International Court of Justice (ICJ) – based in The Hague, in The Netherlands – is being asked by South Africa if the 100-day (so far) slaughter by the Government of Israel in Gaza constitutes a 'genocide'. Thus 'genocide' is presented as a binary ... More >>
Political Culture And Close Elections
Thursday, 21 December 2023, 4:31 pm | Keith Rankin
When countries' national elections are closely fought, it means that the median voters critically determine the parliamentary or congressional outcome. But, though depending to a considerable extent on the prevailing political culture, the centre-of-gravity More >>
The Shipping News: Lyttelton Versus Picton, And Other Stories
Tuesday, 19 December 2023, 4:36 pm | Keith Rankin
Last week the new government effectively cancelled the plans of Kiwi Rail – in the form of 'The Interislander' – derailing its intended Picton rail and road expansion. The plans were judged to be too costly; in particular, the rate of cost escalation ... More >>
Te Pūkenga, Universities, And Unitec
Friday, 15 December 2023, 10:05 am | Keith Rankin
Tertiary education is in crisis in Aotearoa New Zealand. Vocational education, the domain of the Polytechnic 'Institutes of Technology'; and Science and Humanities' education, the traditional domain of the Universities. 2023 was an election year, ... More >>
Supremacism, Israel And Neozionism
Friday, 1 December 2023, 2:15 pm | Keith Rankin
Keith Rankin, 1 December 2023 Supremacism is a cultural belief that an in-group of humanity is inherently superior to other groups, and that those other groups have lesser human rights as a consequence of their presumed inferiority or ... More >>
Government By Cliché
Tuesday, 28 November 2023, 4:14 pm | Keith Rankin
The new government is making a weak start to its tenure. On Morning Report (RNZ, 28 Nov 2023, Prime Minister Luxon to lead first cabinet meeting ), Mr Luxon repeated a comment such as he has made several times before: "The number one job is to ... More >>
New Zealand's Coming Triple Demographic Crisis
Thursday, 16 November 2023, 4:05 pm | Keith Rankin
The three components to the crisis are churn, aging, and the increasing predominance of births into disadvantaged households. Churn Yesterday the main release from Statistics New Zealand was Record net migration loss of New Zealand citizens . " There ... More >>
Christopher Luxon Is Tone Deaf And Slightly Innumerate On Tax
Tuesday, 14 November 2023, 4:20 pm | Keith Rankin
Christopher Luxon and Nicola Willis have a bottom-line policy of delivering "tax relief" to New Zealand's "squeezed middle". Their modest policy is to increase the first three income tax thresholds by 11.5%, representing compensation ... More >>
Predicting The Final Outcome Of The Election
Friday, 3 November 2023, 11:52 am | Keith Rankin
There may be some surprises when the final election count comes out today. One particular point to note refers back to the United States presidential election of 2020, when the late votes in most states – those votes not counted on election night – very ... More >>
The Ponzi Financial Model: Japan And United States
Wednesday, 1 November 2023, 2:47 pm | Keith Rankin
Last week ( The Ponzi financial model and New Zealand’s monetary policy ) I described New Zealand's place and financial strategy within the world's financial ecosystem; how New Zealand pursues a ponzi financial model, and how that model has played a ... More >>
The Ponzi Financial Model And New Zealand's Monetary Policy
Thursday, 26 October 2023, 3:19 pm | Keith Rankin
Today I read this article ( David Seymour calls for sweeping changes to make the Reserve Bank more accountable , NZ Herald , 26 October) showing David Seymore's wish to double-down on New Zealand's financial model. The Ponzi financial model operates ... More >>
Does Christopher Luxon Understand MMP?
Monday, 9 October 2023, 6:34 pm | Keith Rankin
I read this article quoting Christopher Luxon as follows: "We’ve been to many places where marginal seats are and we’re getting good movement." ( Luxon talks to media amid election result limbo fears , NZ Herald , 7 Oct 2023). He has ... More >>
Financial Literacy, Compound Interest, And The Veneration Of Money
Monday, 21 August 2023, 5:50 pm | Keith Rankin
In New Zealand, both Labour and National want the teaching of 'financial literacy' to become compulsory in schools. (See Labour pledges compulsory financial literacy classes in schools and National also aiming to make financial literacy compulsory ... More >>
Subsidise Vegetables And Fruit
Tuesday, 15 August 2023, 12:25 pm | Keith Rankin
Fresh vegetables and fruit – quality foods – are what economists call a merit good , like primary health care, education and urban public transport. By contrast, 'junk food' – rich in sugar – is a demerit good. We in New Zealand and many other ... More >>
Income Tax And Common-Sense: The Aotearoa New Zealand Case
Monday, 17 July 2023, 11:37 am | Keith Rankin
Last week we heard the Labour Party leader, Prime Minister Chris Hipkins, practically rule out changes to the marginal income tax rates or the associated income thresholds. In particular, he indicated that a Hipkins-led government would not proceed with ... More >>
Narratives And Narrators: The Curious RNZ Story
Wednesday, 12 July 2023, 6:53 pm | Keith Rankin
I was concerned when the story broke last month about inappropriate subediting by RNZ staff of 'wirecopy' from international sources such as Reuters. The wire-tampering story broke with particular reference to stories about the war in Ukraine; and, at ... More >>
Adult Poverty Action, And The Loafers Lodge
Friday, 19 May 2023, 2:15 pm | Keith Rankin
Tuesday's boarding-house fire in Wellington was a tragedy of lost lives, and failure to supply safe housing and adequately resourced emergency services. But it was much more, and so far the socio-demographic revelations have barely been touched upon ... More >>
Public Science, Covid19 Vaccines, And The Audio Medium
Thursday, 6 April 2023, 10:54 am | Keith Rankin
Public science is an open contestable process, whereby questions of public importance are evaluated in an open contestable forum. If any research by one scientist is not able to be replicated by other citizens using the same data, then the findings of ... More >>
Covid19 Post-Pandemic: Back To Normal?
Monday, 3 April 2023, 2:30 pm | Keith Rankin
A pandemic can end in three ways. Either the death rates attributed to the pandemic disease cease, or at least drop back to pre-pandemic levels. Or normality is re-established, with the pandemic disease still present, but displacing other causes of death. Or ... More >>
Sex, Gender, Demography And Culture Wars
Thursday, 30 March 2023, 2:12 pm | Keith Rankin
Sex Whoever would have predicted that the definition of 'male' and 'female' could ever become a matter of contention? My professional life has been in political economy, which includes social science and humanities: philosophy, economics, history, statistics, ... More >>
