Independent Analysis and Reportage
Keith RankinKeith Rankin is an economics and statistics lecturer, recently retired from Unitec, Auckland, New Zealand.
Keith Rankin writes; January 1956: "In a famous interview with Life magazine, Dulles formalized his philosophy of 'Brinkmanship', boasting that intentionally pushing the Soviet Union and China to the very verge of nuclear war was a 'necessary art' to secure peace." Is such Dulles-style brinkmanship Nato's present doctrine against Russia?
Keith Rankin writes; In 2026 we chatter more about interest rates and government debt, and talk as if misframed 'inflation' is the biggest threat of all. Such macroeconomist micro-doom chatter is largely an aggravating displacement activity, prose we can cite if or when we – rich as well as poor – go down with our own Homeric Titanic...
Keith Rankin writes; If we think of actual nuclear explosions – especially atmospheric ones – they have predominantly been in Oceania; in four sites which form something of a spoke-wheel around Auckland...
Keith Rankin writes; Ever since the Soviet Union gained the 'atomic bomb' in 1949, the argument among geopoliticians has been that an edgy global 'peace' has been maintained by virtue of the principle of deterrence... That principle has broken down...
Keith Rankin writes; Hipkins would be better served to address the point actually being made by Shane Jones. Was Luxon's behaviour sufficiently deferential to convey vassalage towards India? Was it as deferential as Mark Rutte calling Donald Trump "Daddy"?
Keith Rankin writes: Andy Burnham is popular because he's seen as a plausible, indeed charismatic, political leader with sound albeit moderate social-democratic credentials. Yet almost all the television coverage I have seen about him focuses on domestic socio-economic and regional governance policy; none of that coverage has focussed on fiscal policy...
Keith Rankin writes: ... when older people are (for purely economic reasons) added workers clinging onto jobs which they would rather retire from, then they are simply blocking the employment pipeline – gumming up the works – and contributing to the difficulties being faced in making young people productive.
Keith Rankin writes: We know from medical science that many conditions come right – heal themselves, without treatment – after a certain amount of time. This is true for many pathogen-caused conditions, which are resolved by the immune system... Economic ailments can be similar.
Keith Rankin writes: The authorities' policy of economic cruelty continues, with yesterday's rise in the Official Cash Rate in the middle of an ongoing (and possibly deepening) economic crisis.
Keith Rankin writes; Earlier I published two charts showing the demographic changes, from 1986 to 2026, in the female working-age population. Here are the equivalent charts for the male population; generally showing, compared to women, lower numbers of older men and more younger men.
Keith Rankin writes; ... today New Zealand arguably collects too much information about ethnicity and gender; and too little information about people's ages, birth-years, and birth-places.
Keith Rankin - Will the New Zealand Ponzi scheme – established 1985 – ever fold? Maybe not. New Zealand is small and the world is large. Indeed those who have invested in New Zealand, a Ponzi entity for four decades, have generally done well for themselves.