Scoop has an Ethical Paywall
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 24]
Rankin: Employment Relation - Some Reflections
Thursday, 16 March 2000, 10:11 am | Keith Rankin
The Employment Relations Bill - introduced into Parliament this week - establishes a midpoint between the 1991 Employment Contracts Act and the previous labour relations' regime which lasted in various guises for 97 years. More >>
Rankin: Sharing Responsibility Negotiating Custody
Thursday, 9 March 2000, 8:46 am | Keith Rankin
Whangarei List MP Muriel Newman should be congratulated for her shared parenting bill, presented to Parliament last week. An Act MP, she is entering into a minefield of family and gender politics, which means that the bill will probably fail. More >>
Keith Rankin: The Health Costs of Inequality
Thursday, 2 March 2000, 9:16 am | Keith Rankin
Yesterday the Herald's editorial writer criticised Jim Anderton's regional development plan - announced on 29 February. The Herald sees Anderton's approach as a trade-off between efficiency (or "competitiveness" which is not always the same thing) ... More >>
Rankin: Retirement Support: What's in a Name?
Thursday, 24 February 2000, 8:48 am | Keith Rankin
On 27 January, the Government announced that New Zealand Superannuation will be raised to 67% of the average weekly wage. In doing so, it missed its opportunity to reintroduce a clawback mechanism for those persons over 65 with significant private incomes. ... More >>
Opinion: Rankin On Thursday - Electoral Integrity
Thursday, 17 February 2000, 9:44 am | Keith Rankin
Submissions to the Select Committee on the "Electoral Integrity Bill" close soon. It's likely to be a done deal, with opposing submissions being ignored. More >>
Keith Rankin's Thursday Column - Boy Joerg
Thursday, 10 February 2000, 9:14 am | Keith Rankin
Rather than over-reacting to Haider's innocent praising of Hitler's full-employment policies, we should be concerned about: (i) why increasing numbers of European voters are voting for racist parties, (ii) why parties to the left of the mildly-right-wing ... More >>
Rankin: John Hawkesby: World Famous in New Zealand
Thursday, 3 February 2000, 9:35 am | Keith Rankin
By what criteria does television pay its newsreaders? One criterion is star quality. Stars are persons who - by dint of their personalities, talents and profiles - can generate revenues for their employers sufficient to justify huge fees or salary packages. ... More >>
Keith Rankin Column - Don Brash has no Plan B
Thursday, 20 January 2000, 9:47 am | Keith Rankin
Yesterday we were subject to the embarrassing experience of the Reserve Bank tightening monetary policy just two hours before the public announcement of a December quarter inflation rate of just 0.2 percent. The Bank had forecast that the inflation rate ... More >>
Balance of Payments and Macroeconomic Policy
Thursday, 23 December 1999, 9:03 am | Keith Rankin
The balance of payments' current account deficit (CAD) in the year to September 1999 was $6,610 million compared with a $6,217 million deficit for the year ended June. These figures, released on Tuesday, do not include an important new class of "invisibles" ... More >>
Rankin on Thursday - Labour has Balance of Power
Thursday, 16 December 1999, 8:50 am | Keith Rankin
How strong can a Labour-led Government be in the MMP environment? Is Labour a dog easily wagged? Is it not true that the Greens have the "balance of power"? Or maybe New Zealand First? I argue here that Labour is strategically placed to dominate ... More >>
Rankin Thursday: No Seattle Washington Consensus
Thursday, 9 December 1999, 8:57 am | Keith Rankin
The "Washington Consensus" is the popular name for the neoliberal policy programme promoted by the Bretton Woods institutions: the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the World Bank, and the late-born World Trade Organisation (WTO). More >>
Rankin Column: Whither the Greens?
Thursday, 2 December 1999, 8:25 am | Keith Rankin
Following the election results on the Internet, I willed the Green vote over the 5% mark. It was like watching the "runs per over required" statistic in a one-day cricket match. To no avail. As Labour's percentage kept rising and New ... More >>
Rankin on Thursday: Damned Lies and the Third "R"
Thursday, 25 November 1999, 8:29 am | Keith Rankin
As usual, an election campaign brings out a number of false or misleading statistics, plus a general discomfort with issues that involve numeracy skills. While sometimes they are genuine mistakes, usually the inaccuracies are biased towards the political ... More >>
Rankin: Act on Income Tax and Property Rights
Thursday, 18 November 1999, 8:43 am | Keith Rankin
The Act Party has two income tax policies. One is to "move to a flatter tax rate structure" with "a top rate of company and personal income tax of no more than 20%" ("Tax - A Fair Tax System For Jobs and Growth", 3 November media release, Rodney ... More >>
Rankin on Thursday - A Government of the Centre?
Thursday, 11 November 1999, 8:27 am | Keith Rankin
There are times I worry about Winston; Peters that is, not that notorious party hopper Churchill. Every time he says "MMP" I sense another percentage point of anti-MMP sentiment. And when he talks about watertight coalition documents and talks ... More >>
Rankin on Thursday - More Tax Cuts For Rich?
Thursday, 4 November 1999, 8:39 am | Keith Rankin
Jenny Shipley has promised that a National government will pay, to New Zealanders who receive high incomes, a dividend in the form of a cut in the 33% tax rate to 30%. The argument of those who seek such a handout is that New Zealand must cut its ... More >>
Rankin on Thursday: FPP rears its ugly head
Thursday, 28 October 1999, 8:35 am | Keith Rankin
The kerfuffle over Coromandel is not about MMP. Rather, it's about first-past-the-post (FPP) and its retention in the MMP electorate vote. More >>
Rankin on Thursday: Where communism succeeded...
Thursday, 21 October 1999, 8:43 am | Keith Rankin
I watched BBC's Horizon programme The Virus the Cures on Prime TV on 11 October. The programme revealed that we - ie humankind - had discovered a superior cure (to antibiotics) for bacterial infections around the same time that penicillin was being ... More >>
Rankin's Thursday Column - Global Demographics
Thursday, 14 October 1999, 8:37 am | Keith Rankin
The world's population reached six billion this month. Further, India now has one billion people. Should we celebrate, or are these milestones en route to environmental disaster? Keith Rankin writes. More >>
Keith Rankin Column: MMP Commonsense
Thursday, 7 October 1999, 9:35 am | Keith Rankin
The coming election gives us renewed opportunity to interpret everything that politicians say and do with cynicism. It would be nice if we can rise above such a self-imposed stupor. We did it with APEC. More >>
