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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]
Fire! Fire! Today's Vestiges Of Ruthenasia And Classical Austerity
Tuesday, 16 December 2025, 4:26 pm | Keith Rankin
Four defunct economists feature in this story about Richardson, Willis, and Truss; all four associated with the first two decades of the nineteenth century: Jean-Baptiste Say, James Mill, David Ricardo, and Thomas Robert Malthus. More >>
Compound Interest In New Zealand's Last 100 Years
Friday, 28 November 2025, 3:59 pm | Keith Rankin
Speculations on AI, Bitcoin, or African gold are no more routes to financial security or future abundance than is prosaic money-losing compound interest. More >>
The Mansion As A Metaphor For Neoliberal Finance Capitalism
Friday, 14 November 2025, 4:53 pm | Keith Rankin
When inequality is high or growing, more money flows from the working classes to the top-ten percent – the ten percenters – than flows the other way; the casino grows faster than the commons. More >>
Affording And Financing Wars, With Reference To The United States
Friday, 7 November 2025, 3:24 pm | Keith Rankin
In all wars, all parties incur costs; significant costs. They are very costly, both in terms of their opportunity costs and the human misery of death, destruction of habitat and taonga, and injury More >>
Red Gold: Japan's Lesson For The World
Thursday, 30 October 2025, 3:54 pm | Keith Rankin
This red wall has been the norm for Japan, except for a brief period in the late 1980s and early 1990s when Japan had one of the world's most spectacular financial bubbles and busts. More >>
A Quarter-Century Of New Zealand's CPI Inflation
Friday, 24 October 2025, 3:23 pm | Keith Rankin
Tradable CPI inflation mainly represents the retail prices of traded goods; goods New Zealand mainly exports and goods New Zealand mainly imports. More >>
The Truth About Prices In New Zealand, In Five Charts
Wednesday, 22 October 2025, 3:08 pm | Keith Rankin
2026 and 2027 will be interesting because the longer outcome lag from high interest rates in 2024 and the shorter outcome lag from falling interest rates in 2025 suggests a wait until later in 2026 before there are marked falls in PPI-inflation. More >>
Post-Covid Immigration To New Zealand By Nationality
Tuesday, 14 October 2025, 4:28 pm | Keith Rankin
Most immigrants arrive on non-residence visas, and then have to apply for permanent residence or other long-stay visas. More >>
Official Cash Rate: The Correct Decision. But?
Wednesday, 8 October 2025, 5:55 pm | Keith Rankin
The nominal rate of interest is now set by edict. But the other two prices of money are set by markets. The end result will be a positive real rate of interest if 'investment demand' exceeds 'saving supply'. More >>
A Brief History Of Monetary Policy (Part Two), Including Modern Monetary Theory
Friday, 3 October 2025, 3:52 pm | Keith Rankin
The central idea is that core money is public debt; a set of promises spent into circulation and backed by sovereign governments. Public debt(s) are private assets, just as a bar of gold is an asset. More >>
A Brief History Of Monetary Policy (Part One)
Friday, 26 September 2025, 3:30 pm | Keith Rankin
The differences in conceptions of money can be summed up as the philosophers versus the bankers. From the late-1970s, the world of monetary policy and finance saw a return to the 'economic liberalism' which peaked in the 1920s. More >>
Pushing A String: Ineffective Monetary Policy
Monday, 22 September 2025, 5:09 pm | Keith Rankin
Recovery through easy monetary policy depends on there being enough potential borrowers willing and able to respond to the monetary carrot. More >>
Nuclear Calculus
Thursday, 18 September 2025, 11:16 am | Keith Rankin
While great-power brinkmanship is far from rational, rational thinking under great pressure will be required to end a nuclear war once started. Even the most rational decision-process will involve many casualties. More >>
Geopolitical Rugby: Bad Plays Evil, For The Final World Cup
Tuesday, 16 September 2025, 4:22 pm | Keith Rankin
If Evil is winning and Bad refuses to 'sue for peace', then the only hope for the birds and the bees is a quick extinction of all participating humans. More >>
Lookism
Thursday, 11 September 2025, 5:38 pm | Keith Rankin
Lookism regards as the most tragic of victims the young, the blond, the blue-eyed, the fair-skinned, the slim (but not emaciated). Lookism favours long or plaited hair; uncovered heads. Lookism is racism, ageism, culturism, and individualism. More >>
The Coalition Of Sanctimony And Hypocrisy
Friday, 5 September 2025, 2:06 pm | Keith Rankin
The world is facing a dangerous moment. Sanctimony and hypocrisy are not the answers. Fraternity, trustfulness, dialogue, neutrality, sympathy; they are the qualities we need to embrace and project. More >>
Intellectual Paralysis: Cost Of Living, Inflation, And Interest Costs
Friday, 29 August 2025, 2:38 pm | Keith Rankin
Money is an economic lubricant, not a fuel. Neither the family car nor the national waka (aka NZ Inc.) will function well if decision-makers choose to economise on lubricating oil. More >>
Intellectual Paralysis: Cost Of Living, Inflation, And Interest Costs
Friday, 29 August 2025, 2:38 pm | Keith Rankin
Money is an economic lubricant, not a fuel. Neither the family car nor the national waka (aka NZ Inc.) will function well if decision-makers choose to economise on lubricating oil. More >>
Equal Pay, Pay Equity, And Cost-Of-Living Narratives
Friday, 22 August 2025, 2:21 pm | Keith Rankin
Pushing for pay relativities vis-à-vis other occupational groups is not the answer; rather it's part of the problem of some groups trying to 'get ahead' while others cannot or should not. More >>
Goodies And Baddies? Lessons Since The World War Of 1914
Friday, 15 August 2025, 12:29 pm | Keith Rankin
Conflicts will always exist. If we can get past the Good versus Bad narratives, we can make deals which are never perfect for either party; but better for all three parties (noting that world wars have major impacts on third parties) More >>
