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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 4]
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 >>
Stimulate Or Suffocate, In The Light Of Older Women's Spending?
Friday, 8 August 2025, 1:07 pm | Keith Rankin
My focus here is to look at the historical and recent employment rates of older women (aged over 55), and to consider the importance of their spending to the health or otherwise of the New Zealand economy. More >>
How Did New Zealand Compare In The First Half Of The 2020s?
Tuesday, 29 July 2025, 12:04 pm | Keith Rankin
All is not well in the New Zealand economy. And it's also quite unwell in some other countries, especially the North European Euro-zone countries, and the United Kingdom. More >>
Representation Versus Reality; Reaching A Low Point
Friday, 25 July 2025, 3:24 pm | Keith Rankin
In New Zealand, although we are allegedly at the 'bottom of the world', in the Far Southeast. We also pride ourselves as being in the West and in the Global North. What is genuinely true is that Aotearoa New Zealand is geographically very far from ... More >>
Letter From Westphalia, Germany; 6 June 1933
Friday, 18 July 2025, 11:45 am | Keith Rankin
Friday, 18 July 2025 On Saturday I came into possession of this letter , transcript below. I will note that the recipient of the letter is someone I know a bit about; I would like to know more about his time in London, circa 1930-1932. I understand ... More >>
Reporting International Migration: Less Than The Truth
Tuesday, 15 July 2025, 9:30 am | Keith Rankin
The total number of people who featured (in the period from June 2024 to May 2025) as either immigrants or emigrants was 264,000; that is, a number of people equivalent to five percent of New Zealand's total population featured as either a permanent ... More >>
Public Debt, Japan, And Wilful Blindness
Thursday, 10 July 2025, 2:11 pm | Keith Rankin
Despite its high government debt – actually, to a large extent because of its high government debt – Japan's is a creditor economy. Japan is not in debt to the rest of the world. Japan's national debt is non-existent. More >>
Palestine Israel: Implementing A One-State Solution
Wednesday, 25 June 2025, 5:01 pm | Keith Rankin
The never-viable notion of a two-nation-state division of 'Israel' should be dropped as a viable solution in favour of the promotion of a liberal bicultural (or multicultural) nation-state. More >>
America's Imperial 'Gift': 'Crusader Democracy' Versus 'Christian Nationalism'
Wednesday, 18 June 2025, 2:44 pm | Keith Rankin
America's empire today is partly formal, though mostly informal, with various grades of informality. The name 'America' itself is an imperial grab. The modern American-led crusading mentality represents a schism of Protestant Evangelism and Secular Liberalism. More >>
