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]
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 >>
Keith Rankin: The Australian view of New Zealand
Thursday, 18 October 2001, 1:18 pm | Keith Rankin
I think that most New Zealanders were genuinely puzzled by the attitudes revealed by Australians - or at least the Australian media - in the wake of the Ansett Airlines insolvency. Some of us even went along with the Australians' scathing criticism of ... More >>
Keith Rankin: 911 Braveheart
Thursday, 11 October 2001, 9:25 am | Keith Rankin
Watching Simon Schama's tale (telecast on Saturday) of the "pacification" of Wales and Scotland by Edward I ("Longshanks") at the end of the 13th century, I could see that a parallel could be easily drawn with recent world events. ... More >>
Keith Rankin: Capitalist Pragmatism Or Socialism?
Thursday, 4 October 2001, 7:42 am | Keith Rankin
In the first seven decades of the 20th century, there was one major force pushing for public ownership and control of the industries that dominate national economies. That force was socialism. More >>
Keith Rankin: A Safer More Tolerant World?
Thursday, 27 September 2001, 10:02 am | Keith Rankin
Now that the New York dust is settling, it is time to reflect not just on the tragedy but on the opportunities for healing - for putting things right - that the attacks on New York and Washington have given us. For those who have died, the least we can ... More >>
Keith Rankin: An Ansettling Experience
Thursday, 20 September 2001, 9:25 am | Keith Rankin
The demise of Air New Zealand Ansett last week has brought home to New Zealanders just how one-sided the relationship between Australia and New Zealand is, and probably has always been. More >>
Keith Rankin: Reflections On Today’s Only Story
Thursday, 13 September 2001, 8:31 am | Keith Rankin
Well, there's only one story today. I really appreciated Scoop's independent coverage of yesterday's American tragedy. More >>
Keith Rankin: What's In A Name?
Thursday, 6 September 2001, 9:14 am | Keith Rankin
It's so easy to oppose something, be it MMP, GE, WTO, IMF or whatever; so much harder to propose something different, something new, something better. Having the imagination to think of something new is the easy bit. How do you communicate it when all the ... More >>
Keith Rankin: Global Oligopoly
Thursday, 30 August 2001, 9:53 am | Keith Rankin
What have Afghani boat people, Third World debt, and the ageing sewers of Calcutta got in common? They all represent obstructions to the global flow of either labour or capital. Such obstructions are inherent in the individual nation-state system ... More >>
Keith Rankin: Learning To Live With The Gene Genie
Thursday, 23 August 2001, 9:19 am | Keith Rankin
Genetic manipulation is a new technology, which, like most new technologies makes a large proportion of us uncomfortable. And, as with other new technologies, we tend to see the issues in pure black and white terms. The pros unquestioningly embrace ... More >>
Keith Rankin: Rejoinder To Gordon King
Monday, 20 August 2001, 9:43 am | Keith Rankin
Gordon King's reply to my column Parliament: Polypoly or Duopoly would have been a useful contribution to the debate about the issues I raised were it not for the blatantly ad hominem opening paragraph. More >>
Keith Rankin: Parliament: Polypoly or Duopoly?
Thursday, 16 August 2001, 8:34 am | Keith Rankin
Economics extols the marketplace. Markets work best when there is competition. The best name for competition is polypoly ("many sellers"). This contrasts with monopoly, duopoly, oligopoly: one, two, few sellers. More >>
Keith Rankin: Don't Cry for Air New Zealand
Thursday, 9 August 2001, 8:50 am | Keith Rankin
To understand what is the preferred future for Air New Zealand, we need to think about the nature of the international airline industry and the nature of the home region from which it operates and within which it flies "domestic" services. ... More >>
Keith Rankin: A Knowledge Province?
Thursday, 2 August 2001, 9:43 am | Keith Rankin
The National Government wanted a "knowledge economy". The present Labour- led government wants a "knowledge society", but may not know the difference. Australia is posturing to become a "knowledge nation". We all want to catch ... More >>
Keith Rankin: Globalisation and Anarchism
Thursday, 26 July 2001, 9:39 am | Keith Rankin
I'm no dogmatic free trader, neoliberal, managerialist or economic rationalist. I favour "world development" but not "world government" [sorry for my typo last week ]. Yet I would hesitate before calling myself anti-globalisation. ... More >>
