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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]
Public Science, Covid19 Vaccines, And The Audio Medium
Thursday, 6 April 2023, 10:54 am | Keith Rankin
Public science is an open contestable process, whereby questions of public importance are evaluated in an open contestable forum. If any research by one scientist is not able to be replicated by other citizens using the same data, then the findings of ... More >>
Covid19 Post-Pandemic: Back To Normal?
Monday, 3 April 2023, 2:30 pm | Keith Rankin
A pandemic can end in three ways. Either the death rates attributed to the pandemic disease cease, or at least drop back to pre-pandemic levels. Or normality is re-established, with the pandemic disease still present, but displacing other causes of death. Or ... More >>
Sex, Gender, Demography And Culture Wars
Thursday, 30 March 2023, 2:12 pm | Keith Rankin
Sex Whoever would have predicted that the definition of 'male' and 'female' could ever become a matter of contention? My professional life has been in political economy, which includes social science and humanities: philosophy, economics, history, statistics, ... More >>
Spiralling Deaths In Germany
Tuesday, 14 March 2023, 2:12 pm | Keith Rankin
The four weeks ending 8 January 2023 have seen easily the most deaths in Germany of any fourweek period since 2015. A table of Germany's mortality peaks from 2015 features in my Evening Report analysis Germany’s Deadliest Weeks since World War ... More >>
To Be A Good Cancer
Thursday, 8 December 2022, 4:04 pm | Keith Rankin
"Antlers grow through a mechanism that is very similar to cancer. But, because deer can keep that growth in check, they are extremely resilient to cancers. … "Sardinia's own dwarf deer, a relative of Ireland's giant elk, was eradicated ... More >>
Predicting The Coming Quarter Century
Tuesday, 6 December 2022, 1:41 pm | Keith Rankin
On 29 October 2022, the New Zealand Listener published 10 Billion reasons to be cheerful , an article by Greg Dixon summarising "futurologist" Hamish McRae's 2022 book The World in 2050: How to think about the future . (Note also the accompanying ... More >>
Using The Sex Industry To Critique Textbook Economics
Friday, 2 December 2022, 2:57 pm | Keith Rankin
Economics is a profound and important discipline. But its practice is prone to self-censorship, and still reflects in large part its (Victorian era) glory days and the sensibilities of that era. The father and mother of today's textbook economics were Alfred Marshall ... More >>
Extending Democracy And The Age Of Voter Entitlement
Friday, 25 November 2022, 1:43 pm | Keith Rankin
Earlier this week, in the wake of a decision by the Supreme Court of Aotearoa New Zealand , the Government announced it would draft a Bill which would extend the franchise in New Zealand to sixteen- and seventeen-year-old citizens and permanent residents. ... More >>
Population Imbalances In A World Of Eight Billion
Thursday, 24 November 2022, 7:00 pm | Keith Rankin
Last week the world population reached eight billion people, at least according to some sources. See these world population clocks, which do not agree: refer Worldometer and the US Census Bureau . The growth rate of the world population is slowing. Indeed, ... More >>
Science, And The Benefits And Costs Of Nose-Picking
Thursday, 17 November 2022, 12:34 pm | Keith Rankin
If ... gets up your nose, picket.* This month, Radio New Zealand listeners were treated to not one but two science stories about nose-picking! They make good fodder for a discussion about the practice of science. Self-Vaccination? The first item ... More >>
The Cost-of-Living Crisis, And Inflation
Wednesday, 9 November 2022, 12:05 pm | Keith Rankin
The present cost-of-living crisis, and the present inflation, are global issues. It is just silly to discuss these, to address these, in predominantly nationalist terms. The next key point to note is that rises in the cost-of-living and inflation ... More >>
Liz Truss And Kwasi Kwarteng: What They Were Thinking
Monday, 7 November 2022, 3:45 pm | Keith Rankin
In the last three months, Elizabeth (Liz) Truss and Kwasi Kwarteng performed an amazing political boom and bust routine. They captured the British Conservative Party at a time that such a capture meant a direct route to power in the United Kingdom. ... More >>
The Coming Plight Of Aotearoan Women In Their Early Sixties
Thursday, 3 November 2022, 7:07 am | Keith Rankin
This is a story that is not confined to New Zealand women in their early 60s, but which focusses on them as a surprisingly large group facing challenging circumstances. My focus narrows even further; my emphasis here is on 'married' women, and with partners ... More >>
Does Covid19 Discriminate Against Māori And Pasifika New Zealanders?
Wednesday, 19 October 2022, 10:20 am | Keith Rankin
A few weeks ago this article from Stuff (24 Sep) was drawn to my attention: The shocking stats that prove Covid19 does not kill equally . While I have some problems with the article's interpretation of the data, by and large the article itself was ... More >>
Public Health Watch: Where Does Michael Baker Get His Facts From?
Wednesday, 10 August 2022, 4:01 pm | Keith Rankin
This morning, RNZ played the following story: Health stats show 87 people have died in their homes from Covid-19 since March , which references New Zealand's most media-visible expert, Dr Michael Baker. (And this on today's Morning Report .) Before commenting More >>
Some Important But Little Known Facts About Taiwan
Friday, 5 August 2022, 3:21 pm | Keith Rankin
The nuclear clock is closer than ever (since 1962) to 'midnight'. Taiwan and Ukraine are of course the two flashpoints. It is important that the citizens of the world understand the key facts. The official name of Taiwan is the 'Republic of China'. ... More >>
Some Important But Little Known Facts About Taiwan
Friday, 5 August 2022, 3:14 pm | Keith Rankin
The nuclear clock is closer than ever (since 1962) to 'midnight'. Taiwan and Ukraine are of course the two flashpoints. It is important that the citizens of the world understand the key facts. The official name of Taiwan is the 'Republic of China'. ... More >>
Covid19 Winter Deaths: New Zealand Versus Australia
Wednesday, 3 August 2022, 10:55 am | Keith Rankin
New Zealand has had the worst reported mortality rate for Covid19 in the world for the last two weeks, according to the international data. And by a significant margin. But you wouldn't know it from the traditional media. 'Underwhelming' is an overstatement. ... More >>
Answers Please? Tribulations Of Getting A Covid19 Vaccine '2nd Booster'
Thursday, 28 July 2022, 1:34 pm | Keith Rankin
I try to write about general issues of importance, in a general – indeed global – context. This time I will write just about me. I am the same age as Phil Goff, Mayor of Auckland. And I want to be appropriately protected from Covid19. I have ... More >>
The Economic Cost Of War, Especially World War
Friday, 22 July 2022, 2:59 pm | Keith Rankin
All wars incur economic costs, and not only to the directly belligerent countries. The biggest costs arise when a war becomes a prolonged stalemate. The present war in Ukraine can be characterised, differently, as a Russian Civil War (that's the ... More >>
