CoveragePost
September 2, 2020
Analysis by Keith Rankin. In practice, democratic political reforms are usually incremental, though typically seen as part of a process leading to wider and more embedded improvement. Reforms are ‘evolutionary’ – indeed, in a technical sense – in that they improve the ‘fitness’ of democratic society. Unlike biological evolution, which is a fully blind process, ... <a title="Keith Rankin Analysis – Extending Democracy; a Path-Dependent Process" class="read-more" href="https://eveningreport.nz/2020/09/02/keith-rankin-analysis-extending-democracy-a-path-dependent-process/" aria-label="Read more about Keith Rankin Analysis – Extending Democracy; a Path-Dependent Process">Read more</a>
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August 27, 2020
Analysis by Dr Bryce Edwards Inequality and poverty look to be the forgotten issues of the election campaign, with not much more than lip-service being paid to them on the campaign trail. Yet decisions are currently being made that appear to be fuelling a greater gap between rich and poor. Newsroom’s Bernard Hickey has tweeted ... <a title="Bryce Edwards’ Political Roundup: Politicians making inequality worse" class="read-more" href="https://eveningreport.nz/2020/08/27/bryce-edwards-political-roundup-politicians-making-inequality-worse/" aria-label="Read more about Bryce Edwards’ Political Roundup: Politicians making inequality worse">Read more</a>
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August 27, 2020
Analysis by Keith Rankin. Macroeconomic Policy Macroeconomic policy is largely the art or science of the governance of economic imbalance. Some of the words that indicate imbalance are ‘recession’, ‘inflation’, ‘deflation’ and ‘contraction’. Another word, ‘stagflation’, represents a mix of recession and inflation. (Note that ‘inflation’ here indicates an unsustainable and ongoing process of price ... <a title="Keith Rankin Analysis – The Two Policy Silos: Reserve Bank and Treasury" class="read-more" href="https://eveningreport.nz/2020/08/27/keith-rankin-analysis-the-two-policy-silos-reserve-bank-and-treasury/" aria-label="Read more about Keith Rankin Analysis – The Two Policy Silos: Reserve Bank and Treasury">Read more</a>
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July 16, 2020
Analysis by Keith Rankin. Representative Democracy On 26 June, I attended a zoom webinar called ‘Modern politics – 20thC to MMP’, run by Auckland Libraries and Ancestry.com. The speakers were politics’ academics Grant Duncan and Toby Boraman, from Massey University. Duncan is a well-known political scientist, and Boraman is a specialist in Labour History. (An ... <a title="Keith Rankin Analysis – Universal Basic Income: Left, Right, and Centre" class="read-more" href="https://eveningreport.nz/2020/07/16/keith-rankin-analysis-universal-basic-income-left-right-and-centre/" aria-label="Read more about Keith Rankin Analysis – Universal Basic Income: Left, Right, and Centre">Read more</a>
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July 7, 2020
Analysis by Keith Rankin, 6 July 2020 Three Citizenships The concept of ‘citizenship’ has both general and specific meanings. The most specific and familiar I call passport citizenship. A passport citizen of a country is a person holding a passport for that country, or with unambiguous entitlement to hold such a passport. More than anything a ... <a title="Keith Rankin Analysis – Duty of Care and Economic Citizenship" class="read-more" href="https://eveningreport.nz/2020/07/07/keith-rankin-analysis-duty-of-care-and-economic-citizenship/" aria-label="Read more about Keith Rankin Analysis – Duty of Care and Economic Citizenship">Read more</a>
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July 2, 2020
Analysis by Keith Rankin, 2 July 2020 Socialism versus Progressive Capitalism I was disappointed that the Green Party continues to reject a distributive Universal Basic Income (UBI) in favour of a redistributive and polarising Guaranteed Minimum Income (GMI) model. GMI is the antithesis of UBI. The essence of UBI, through flattening income tax, is the creation ... <a title="Keith Rankin Analysis – Green Party Tax-Benefit Policy is not Helpful" class="read-more" href="https://eveningreport.nz/2020/07/02/keith-rankin-analysis-green-party-tax-benefit-policy-is-not-helpful/" aria-label="Read more about Keith Rankin Analysis – Green Party Tax-Benefit Policy is not Helpful">Read more</a>
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June 30, 2020
These charts tell a simple story about how the coronavirus pandemic could be a catalyst for the transition to a more sustainable economic future. Looking at Chart 1, the gross domestic product (GDP) of the economy is shown as the combination of yellow and orange. (We note that these charts represent another aspect of pie ... <a title="Keith Rankin Chart Analysis – Pandemic as a Catalyst for a New Economic Normal" class="read-more" href="https://eveningreport.nz/2020/06/30/keith-rankin-chart-analysis-pandemic-as-a-catalyst-for-a-new-economic-normal/" aria-label="Read more about Keith Rankin Chart Analysis – Pandemic as a Catalyst for a New Economic Normal">Read more</a>
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June 26, 2020
Analysis by Keith Rankin. Fundamental Magic The fundamentals of existence are difficult to explain, which is why we need to fall back on abstract ‘creators’; ie beings sufficiently abstract that they themselves do not need to be explained. Here is my big three list of origin magics that underpin our existence. One. The origin of ... <a title="Keith Rankin Analysis – Imagination, Science, and Day-to-Day Magic" class="read-more" href="https://eveningreport.nz/2020/06/26/keith-rankin-analysis-imagination-science-and-day-to-day-magic/" aria-label="Read more about Keith Rankin Analysis – Imagination, Science, and Day-to-Day Magic">Read more</a>
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June 11, 2020
Analysis by Keith Rankin. Imagery: Metaphors, Symbols, Analogies As a species, people use symbols to facilitate understandings of the complexities of the world. In the last millennium in Europe, the highest subjects of learning were ‘classical studies’ and ‘theology’. It was because almost all of the principal explanatory stories of human life – as the priestly ... <a title="Keith Rankin Analysis – Goldmining as our Metaphor for Economic Activity" class="read-more" href="https://eveningreport.nz/2020/06/11/keith-rankin-analysis-goldmining-as-our-metaphor-for-economic-activity/" aria-label="Read more about Keith Rankin Analysis – Goldmining as our Metaphor for Economic Activity">Read more</a>
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June 8, 2020
Analysis by Keith Rankin. Good or Bad? Are there good or bad signature patterns for countries. The most obvious answer is that every country should ideally look like Portugal in 2019. Government sector and foreign sector balances would be close to zero. Private sector balances would also be close to zero, with household surpluses (net household ... <a title="Keith Rankin Chart Analysis – Financial Signatures: Portugal and New Zealand compared" class="read-more" href="https://eveningreport.nz/2020/06/08/keith-rankin-chart-analysis-financial-signatures-portugal-and-new-zealand-compared/" aria-label="Read more about Keith Rankin Chart Analysis – Financial Signatures: Portugal and New Zealand compared">Read more</a>
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May 28, 2020
Analysis by Keith Rankin. On Project Syndicate – and in other places in recent months – orthodox US economist Kenneth Rogoff has presented the case for deeply negative interest rates. Another financial sacred cow falls; yes, interest rates can be negative, even substantially negative. It can take a while, though, for shot sacred cows to ... <a title="Keith Rankin on Deeply Negative Interest Rates" class="read-more" href="https://eveningreport.nz/2020/05/28/keith-rankin-on-deeply-negative-interest-rates/" aria-label="Read more about Keith Rankin on Deeply Negative Interest Rates">Read more</a>
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May 21, 2020
Analysis by Keith Rankin. Budget-related Economic Chatter Last week in New Zealand was Budget week, and the chatter about the burden of government debt reached a crescendo. I will highlight here comments made, on Monday 11 May, by four economists with substantial media profiles, from Radio New Zealand’s Nine to Noon (hosted by Kathryn Ryan), ... <a title="Keith Rankin Analysis – Unpacking our Fear of Government Debt" class="read-more" href="https://eveningreport.nz/2020/05/21/keith-rankin-analysis-unpacking-our-fear-of-government-debt/" aria-label="Read more about Keith Rankin Analysis – Unpacking our Fear of Government Debt">Read more</a>
