CoveragePost
May 30, 2025
Analysis by Keith Rankin. Who, neither politician nor monarch, executed 100,000 civilians in a single night? Answer: Curtis LeMay, American Air Force General, in the wee hours of 10 March 1945. While authorised by his immediate superior, this firebombing of Tokyo was a decentralised military operation which received subsequent popular approval. It was called ‘Operation ... <a title="Keith Rankin Analysis – Who, neither politician nor monarch, executed 100,000 civilians in a single night?" class="read-more" href="https://eveningreport.nz/2025/05/30/keith-rankin-analysis-who-neither-politician-nor-monarch-executed-100000-civilians-in-a-single-night/" aria-label="Read more about Keith Rankin Analysis – Who, neither politician nor monarch, executed 100,000 civilians in a single night?">Read more</a>
CoveragePost
May 27, 2025
Analysis by Keith Rankin. People of a certain age will be aware that the 1962 Cuba Missile Crisis was, for the world as a whole, the most dangerous moment of the Cold War. The 1962 ‘Battle of Cuba’ was a ‘cold battle’ in the same sense that the Cold War was a ‘cold war’. (Only ... <a title="Keith Rankin Analysis – Using Cuba 1962 to explain Trump’s brinkmanship" class="read-more" href="https://eveningreport.nz/2025/05/27/keith-rankin-analysis-using-cuba-1962-to-explain-trumps-brinkmanship/" aria-label="Read more about Keith Rankin Analysis – Using Cuba 1962 to explain Trump’s brinkmanship">Read more</a>
CoveragePost
May 22, 2025
Analysis by Keith Rankin. The central narrative of New Zealand’s Minister of Finance, Nicola Willis, is ‘There is only so much money to go around’. (For example, her interview on RNZ on 20 May, Willis on her second Budget, price of butter. The interview also covers, in the usual subservient way our media addresses these ... <a title="Keith Rankin Analysis – Zero-Sum Fiscal Narratives" class="read-more" href="https://eveningreport.nz/2025/05/22/keith-rankin-analysis-budget-2025-zero-sum-fiscal-narratives/" aria-label="Read more about Keith Rankin Analysis – Zero-Sum Fiscal Narratives">Read more</a>
CoveragePost
May 20, 2025
Analysis by Keith Rankin. Government-owned Kiwirail is supposed to be presiding over the New Zealand Main Trunk (Railway) Line, from Auckland to Invercargill. As such it runs a ferry service (The Interislander) between New Zealand’s North and South Islands. We are being told by Kiwirail (and see today’s report on Radio NZ) that the only ... <a title="Keith Rankin Analysis – The Aratere and the New Zealand Main Trunk Line" class="read-more" href="https://eveningreport.nz/2025/05/20/keith-rankin-analysis-the-aratere-and-the-new-zealand-main-trunk-line/" aria-label="Read more about Keith Rankin Analysis – The Aratere and the New Zealand Main Trunk Line">Read more</a>
CoveragePost
May 9, 2025
Analysis by Keith Rankin. Donald Trump is a mercantilist, as noted in Trump’s tariffs: Short-term damage or long-term ruin? ‘The Bottom Line’, Al Jazeera, 11 April 2025 (or here on YouTube). But the United States, in today’s world, is not a mercantilist country. Or at least not a successful mercantilist country, though it is inhabited ... <a title="Keith Rankin Analysis – Make Deficits Great Again: Maintaining a Pragmatic Balance" class="read-more" href="https://eveningreport.nz/2025/05/09/keith-rankin-analysis-make-deficits-great-again-maintaining-a-pragmatic-balance/" aria-label="Read more about Keith Rankin Analysis – Make Deficits Great Again: Maintaining a Pragmatic Balance">Read more</a>
CoveragePost
May 8, 2025
Analysis by Keith Rankin. The ‘see-saw’ chart above shows the accumulated ‘excess benefits’ that Aotearoa New Zealand, and a few other countries, have enjoyed from international trade over the last 40 years. These are benefits arising from ‘unbalanced trade’ which are in addition to the regular benefits – arising from efficient specialisation – of ‘balanced’ ... <a title="Keith Rankin Chart Analysis – International Trade over time: gifts with strings" class="read-more" href="https://eveningreport.nz/2025/05/08/keith-rankin-chart-analysis-international-trade-over-time-gifts-with-strings/" aria-label="Read more about Keith Rankin Chart Analysis – International Trade over time: gifts with strings">Read more</a>
CoveragePost
March 6, 2025
Opinion/Analysis by Keith Rankin. Germany’s important election last week struggled to make the news cycle, even on Germany’s own Deutsche Welle(DW), Germany’s equivalent of Britain’s BBC. Especially (but not only) in the international media, most of the focus was on a single party (AFD, Alliance for Germany) that was never going to have the most ... <a title="OPINION: Keith Rankin – Germany’s Election 2025: Far Establishment-Right versus Far Non-Establishment-Right?" class="read-more" href="https://eveningreport.nz/2025/03/06/opinion-keith-rankin-germanys-election-2025-far-establishment-right-versus-far-non-establishment-right/" aria-label="Read more about OPINION: Keith Rankin – Germany’s Election 2025: Far Establishment-Right versus Far Non-Establishment-Right?">Read more</a>
CoveragePost
August 22, 2024
Opinion by Hon. Matt Robson, former Alliance Party Cabinet Minister and Associate Minister of Foreign Affairs. In 2000, the Initial vote on Kiwibank in the Labour-Alliance government was 16 votes against from Labour, and four votes in favour from the Alliance. I was there when this was reversed, and in 2001 the four insurgent Alliance ... <a title="Opinion: The New Zealand Public’s KiwiBank On The Auction Block" class="read-more" href="https://eveningreport.nz/2024/08/22/opinion-the-new-zealand-publics-kiwibank-on-the-auction-block/" aria-label="Read more about Opinion: The New Zealand Public’s KiwiBank On The Auction Block">Read more</a>
CoveragePost
August 16, 2024
Analysis by Keith Rankin Wednesday I wrote Department of Mum and Dad (Scoop 14 Aug 2024, or here on Evening Report). I finished by saying that, today, “I will propose a simple affordable solution which better fits centre-right than centre-left philosophies”. Here goes. My proposal is to pay a personal tax credit of $150 per ... <a title="Keith Rankin Analysis – A Personal Tax Credit (PTC) of $150 for New Zealand" class="read-more" href="https://eveningreport.nz/2024/08/16/keith-rankin-analysis-a-personal-tax-credit-ptc-of-150-for-new-zealand/" aria-label="Read more about Keith Rankin Analysis – A Personal Tax Credit (PTC) of $150 for New Zealand">Read more</a>
CoveragePost
August 14, 2024
Department of Mum and Dad Analysis by Keith Rankin. On 12 August, the national-led government announced a new policy program to impose more sanctions on New Zealand’s beneficiaries, meaning people of working age (18-64) whose primary income is a government benefit. (Refer RNZ Government further increases sanctions for beneficiaries, 12 August 2024.) This policy direction ... <a title="Keith Rankin Analysis – Department of Mum and Dad, in the context of a more restrictive welfare state" class="read-more" href="https://eveningreport.nz/2024/08/14/keith-rankin-analysis-department-of-mum-and-dad-in-the-context-of-a-more-restrictive-welfare-state/" aria-label="Read more about Keith Rankin Analysis – Department of Mum and Dad, in the context of a more restrictive welfare state">Read more</a>
CoveragePost
July 31, 2024
Analysis by Keith Rankin. Today is ‘tax cut day’. The present round of income tax cuts has been controversial, despite the fact that they are not ‘real’ tax cuts, only bracket adjustments which partially compensate for CPI inflation this decade. (Here is an interview today with University of Auckland economist Susan St John, which suggests ... <a title="Keith Rankin Analysis – Tax Cuts: 1982 and 2024" class="read-more" href="https://eveningreport.nz/2024/07/31/keith-rankin-analysis-tax-cuts-1982-and-2024/" aria-label="Read more about Keith Rankin Analysis – Tax Cuts: 1982 and 2024">Read more</a>
CoveragePost
July 31, 2024
Analysis by Keith Rankin. The above chart shows CPI inflation in New Zealand in historical context. The chart shows (in orange) the present policy target band of one to three percent annual inflation. And it shows the ‘home-ownership’ component of the CPI. The chart looks different to most charts of CPI inflation, because it uses ... <a title="Keith Rankin Chart Analysis – New Zealand’s Consumers Price Index: CPI Inflation past and present" class="read-more" href="https://eveningreport.nz/2024/07/31/keith-rankin-chart-analysis-new-zealands-consumers-price-index-cpi-inflation-past-and-present/" aria-label="Read more about Keith Rankin Chart Analysis – New Zealand’s Consumers Price Index: CPI Inflation past and present">Read more</a>
