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 29]
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 >>
Rankin On Thursday - Another Black October?
Thursday, 30 September 1999, 8:15 am | Keith Rankin
October is silly season on Wall Street. The Octobers of 1929 and 1987 are well known. More recently, in 1997, the United States stockmarket did a bungee, while in New Zealand our sharemarket's gyrations were described as a "dead cat bouncing". ... More >>
Rankin - Ansett NZ Pilots Confront 90s' Reality
Thursday, 23 September 1999, 8:26 am | Keith Rankin
For most of this month, Ansett New Zealand pilots have been in dispute with their employer. Ansett New Zealand is 100% owned by News Corporation (meaning media magnate, Rupert Murdoch). The dispute is not just about Ansett. More >>
Rankin - The Higher Salaries Debate
Thursday, 16 September 1999, 8:07 am | Keith Rankin
Why do MPs get bigger percentage pay increases than ordinary workers? Why does Christine Rankin, CEO of WINZ, get paid $50,000, more than the Prime Minister's $200,000? And why does the Governor of the Reserve Bank (Don Brash) receive $500,000 per annum, ... More >>
When we Ignore a Burning Fuse
Thursday, 2 September 1999, 8:37 am | Keith Rankin
In four months time we will know the immediate impact of the "Y2K" computer bug; the bug through which computers with 2-digit date fields cannot distinguish which century we are in, and which may cause computers to try to do things they are ... More >>
Rankin Column: Free Trade and Economic Correctness
Thursday, 26 August 1999, 7:51 am | Keith Rankin
Last week Reserve Bank governor Don Brash was reported (Herald, 20 August) as having chastised his fellow economists for not having done more to convince the public that free trade is always the best policy for any nation. More >>
Rankin Column: The Crown's Ownership Interest
Saturday, 14 August 1999, 5:08 pm | Keith Rankin
On Monday, Simon Upton, in a Herald opinion piece defending the post-reform public service culture, noted: "If there is a criticism that can be made it is that ministers" have "underemphasised . the Crown's ownership interests". More >>
