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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 3]
Jeffrey Sachs, An Inconvenient Intellectual Critic
Friday, 19 June 2026, 4:02 pm | Keith Rankin
Jeffrey Sachs and other intelligent and courageous people are trying to warn us. We should listen, and respond with reason rather than quasi-religious rhetoric about Good and Evil. More >>
New Zealand Economic Growth Update
Thursday, 18 June 2026, 4:20 pm | Keith Rankin
The two exceptions to this bounce-back generalisation are the two growth phases preceding the two National-led domestic fiscal crises. More >>
Modern Media As Unintended Propaganda
Wednesday, 17 June 2026, 5:18 pm | Keith Rankin
John Campbell wouldn't think that his style of journalism is propaganda; and he's probably not pushing his own personal agenda here. More >>
Truth, Accountability, And The Burden Of Proof
Thursday, 11 June 2026, 4:11 pm | Keith Rankin
Real 'practical world' truth and proof are in fact statistical concepts; they have an attached probability. More >>
Retrenchment Or Conjuring Trick?
Thursday, 21 May 2026, 4:01 pm | Keith Rankin
New Zealand's exports are booming, and have been for a while. But for New Zealand that's still far from enough; New Zealand needs a government spending circuit breaker as well. More >>
Fantasy Finance
Wednesday, 20 May 2026, 4:35 pm | Keith Rankin
While investment yields can be real, capital gains by their very nature are largely illusory, dependent on most of the 'invested' funds not being withdrawn. More >>
NEETs, Discrimination And Compliance, And Unintended Consequences
Thursday, 14 May 2026, 3:37 pm | Keith Rankin
The latest data suggests that tertiary-educated young women are having more difficulty gaining employment than their male peers. Employment outcomes for this age group are very much about employers' hiring practices. More >>
Does The United States Have A Debt Problem That Needs Fixing?
Wednesday, 13 May 2026, 4:15 pm | Keith Rankin
People would rather lend their governments than pay taxes, though most citizens realise that a substantial part of government spending should be funded by taxes rather than debt. More >>
Haemorrhagic Plague?
Tuesday, 12 May 2026, 4:14 pm | Keith Rankin
The world is becoming more vulnerable; too vulnerable for badheads and hotheads and sureheads (such as Christopher Luxon) and bombastic appeasers (such as Keir Starmer) who cannot broach alternative explanations or strategies. More >>
Can The Russia-Ukraine War Ever End?
Monday, 11 May 2026, 1:02 pm | Keith Rankin
My deeper sense is that the populist political right in Europe – which is slowly regaining ascendency – has demographic designs on Ukraine. More >>
Clipping The Ticket; Solving Hormuz, In Context
Friday, 8 May 2026, 3:51 pm | Keith Rankin
Every little bit to raise the price of oil – and oil-based products – towards their long-run opportunity costs can only be a good thing. More >>
Citizenship And Denizenship In New Zealand
Thursday, 7 May 2026, 4:53 pm | Keith Rankin
New Zealand is increasingly becoming a country with a high denizen-to-citizen ratio. The denizen to citizen ratio is the number of resident adult second- and third-tier denizens divided by the number of resident adult citizens. More >>
Has Sweden Become A De Facto Apartheid Narco State?
Wednesday, 6 May 2026, 4:20 pm | Keith Rankin
The present government – in office since 2022 – is, more than most governments in Sweden's history, heavily into New Zealand's Luxon/Willis style of fiscal consolidation. Albeit with higher taxes and targeted subsidies. More >>
"I Am A Semite"
Monday, 4 May 2026, 6:06 pm | Keith Rankin
In my estimation, people who favour the term 'antisemitism' over 'Judeophobia' are too lazy to resist time-worn tropes. More >>
New Zealand's Dependence: Wheat, Rice, Fuel, Ships
Friday, 1 May 2026, 2:16 pm | Keith Rankin
To avoid a food security catastrophe, New Zealand needs to store more food. Food stores facilitate any transition in land use. More >>
China And Taiwan; A Geopolitical Solution?
Thursday, 30 April 2026, 4:41 pm | Keith Rankin
The Asian political territory called China – a mix of continent and islands – is claimed by two rival regimes; one in Beijing, one in Taipei. More >>
Royal Humiliation? Emperor, King, Prime Minister
Wednesday, 29 April 2026, 4:08 pm | Keith Rankin
To Mr Starmer, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom: Man-up. Grow a spine. Otherwise, you too may fall. Call an election if you must to re-establish your mandate, and the mandate of the King. More >>
Inflation Versus Our Cost-Of-Living Crises Of Choice
Friday, 24 April 2026, 3:44 pm | Keith Rankin
A depreciation of money – inflation – may be a problem, may be a solution to a problem, or it may be neutral. More >>
War Trophies: Considering USA, Iran, And Japan
Monday, 20 April 2026, 4:46 pm | Keith Rankin
It's commonplace, especially in The West, to think of wars in binary terms. In those terms, wars are either won or lost, like a sports match. And the symbol of victory is a trophy. In a match-up, the symbol of defeat is the loss of a trophy. In the ... More >>
Marooned In The Pacific Ocean: Famine Down-Under?
Friday, 17 April 2026, 3:46 pm | Keith Rankin
New Zealand's worst – or at least most immediate – problem might not be fertiliser. Rather, it might be dependence on imports of both human food staples and animal feed. More >>
