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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 21]
Keith Rankin: The New Conservative Dragon-Slayers?
Thursday, 7 June 2001, 7:54 am | Keith Rankin
If I was a betting man, and if Ladbrokes was nearby, I would be betting on a "hung Parliament" in Britain tomorrow. I don't think Hague, Portillo, Widdecombe et.al. will lead the Tories to victory. Nor do I think Labour will lose. But I do think ... More >>
Keith Rankin: John Carruthers
Thursday, 31 May 2001, 9:57 am | Keith Rankin
The experience of Christine Rankin in having her job disestablished via an underhand political manoeuvre reminds me of another senior public servant - John Carruthers - who suffered a similar experience in 1878. More >>
Keith Rankin: Business Handouts
Thursday, 24 May 2001, 9:42 am | Keith Rankin
Nobody really cares that the Government has spent slightly more than it planned to spend this financial year (to June 2001). Indeed there appears to be widespread if understated support for an expansionary fiscal policy to be outlined in today's budget. ... More >>
Rankin: Monetary Pragmatism - Fiscal Anorexia
Thursday, 17 May 2001, 12:40 pm | Keith Rankin
The fourth Labour Government, dogmatically right-wing with respect to monetary policy (ie monetarist), was, despite their spin, spendthrift on fiscal policy. The fifth Labour government is very different. More >>
Keith Rankin: The Shipley Bill
Thursday, 10 May 2001, 9:41 am | Keith Rankin
Jenny Shipley's Electoral Options Referenda Bill has been drawn from the private members' ballot. Tilting at windmills, Mrs Shipley wants, or claims to want, "the people" to decide whether to fix an electoral system that ain't broke. Certainly ... More >>
Keith Rankin: Taxing Green Dollar Communities
Thursday, 3 May 2001, 10:30 am | Keith Rankin
National's revenue spokesperson Annabel Young has taken it upon herself to condemn 'green dollars', and to label 'green markets' as "black markets". She could be opening a Pandora's Box. It only requires enough people to take the bait. (Her ... More >>
Keith Rankin: Another Measly Parental Benefit
Thursday, 26 April 2001, 9:44 am | Keith Rankin
It appears that something called "paid parental leave" will be implemented by this government. I infer from Radio New Zealand reports that the new proposal will be, as National's 1999 parental tax credit was, the equivalent of a social welfare ... More >>
Keith Rankin: Political Economy of Foot and Mouth
Thursday, 12 April 2001, 9:22 am | Keith Rankin
Although it no longer dominates the news in this country, Britain's foot and mouth epidemic continues to rage and many thousands of healthy animals continue to be slaughtered. Further, we are told that the introduction of foot and mouth disease into New Zealand, ... More >>
Rankin: Sound Democracy or Foolish Politics?
Thursday, 5 April 2001, 9:17 am | Keith Rankin
A few months ago, the burghers and businesses of Onehunga were asked, by way of a postal referendum, whether the local water should be fluoridated. Onehunga has its own prized spring water. It is the only suburb of Auckland to not have its water ... More >>
Keith Rankin: The Last Taboo
Thursday, 29 March 2001, 9:25 am | Keith Rankin
We are starting to acknowledge that suicide is a topic that must be discussed and discussed openly. But in New Zealand almost all the media references are to youth suicide. However in 1998 - the latest year for which New Zealand suicide statistics ... More >>
Keith Rankin: Public Property Rights
Thursday, 22 March 2001, 9:04 am | Keith Rankin
There is a more sustainable, more relaxed, more free, route to egalitarian prosperity than the maximum growth maximum employment option. The key concept is that of public property rights . More >>
Keith Rankin: March Party Madness
Thursday, 15 March 2001, 10:31 am | Keith Rankin
Last weekend, the Act party exposed itself to potentially terminal ridicule by continuing to suggest that kiwis should be domesticated, farmed and eaten. While Act's spokesman tells us that no domesticated species ever became extinct, we see on television mass ... More >>
Keith Rankin: Demanding A Knowledge Economy
Thursday, 8 March 2001, 9:48 am | Keith Rankin
The Tertiary Education Advisory Committee (TEAC), set up to advise the government how to achieve its vision of a complementary rather than a competition-oriented tertiary sector, presented its second of three reports yesterday. The focus, as expected, ... More >>
Keith Rankin: Procreate Or Immigrate?
Thursday, 1 March 2001, 9:36 am | Keith Rankin
Just over a week ago, Opposition leader Jenny Shipley suggested that New Zealand could solve some of its problems by raising the birth rate. While her idea made a lot of sense to professional demographers, it was met with derision in the editorial ... More >>
Keith Rankin: Revolting Vets?
Thursday, 22 February 2001, 9:45 am | Keith Rankin
The strike by the veterinary inspectors at our export meat works enters its 7th day today. Are our salaried vets at the vanguard of a wage and salary earners' revolt? Or are they more like greedy Dickensian capitalists, plucking the food out of the ... More >>
Keith Rankin: Sporting Blues
Thursday, 15 February 2001, 9:02 am | Keith Rankin
Sport - ie couch potato sport - is important to New Zealanders. It's a form of vicarious living for (in particular) men - a parallel to the soap operas and romantic novels that serve the same purpose for many women. Sport's fascination goes deeper than ... More >>
Keith Rankin: Good Fund?
Thursday, 8 February 2001, 10:00 am | Keith Rankin
On a number of occasions, I've cited the Alaska Permanent Fund (APF) as a model system of public property rights in action. A highly successful way of managing a publicly owned energy resources and equitably distributing the resulting profits ... More >>
Keith Rankin: Should NZ First be in Parliament?
Thursday, 1 February 2001, 10:06 am | Keith Rankin
With the Select Committee on MMP soon to present its findings, there is a sense that there will be no recommendations for major changes to our new electoral system, but possibly some 'token' concessions to appease those who, for many very different reasons, ... More >>
Keith Rankin: People's Bank
Thursday, 25 January 2001, 8:48 am | Keith Rankin
In this era of globalisation, national boundaries are no barrier to the transmission of money and knowledge, right? Further, flows of people are, very slowly, starting to reflect the new reality of a single planet-wide economy. So why is it then so ... More >>
Rankin: Out of Eden; a Multi-Millennial Story
Wednesday, 17 January 2001, 3:22 pm | Keith Rankin
While the millennium year didn't exactly feature a surfeit of historical reflection or futurist speculation, history is nevertheless making a bit of a comeback, in particular through biographies that are as much about past times as they are about their subjects. ... More >>
