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>
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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>
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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>
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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>
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July 22, 2024
Analysis by Keith Rankin. Interest Rates and Increasing Prices: The Facts The first chart above challenges the received view that inflation in New Zealand remains stubbornly high, and that it is therefore appropriate for the Reserve Bank’s official cash rate (OCR) to be held for at least a few more months at its damagingly high ... <a title="Keith Rankin Chart Analysis – The Truth in New Zealand about Price Inflation and Interest Rates" class="read-more" href="https://eveningreport.nz/2024/07/22/keith-rankin-chart-analysis-the-truth-in-new-zealand-about-price-inflation-and-interest-rates/" aria-label="Read more about Keith Rankin Chart Analysis – The Truth in New Zealand about Price Inflation and Interest Rates">Read more</a>
CoveragePost
March 25, 2024
Opinion by Keith Rankin. Do we need real income-tax cuts this year? Probably not. Do we need nominal income-tax cuts? Yes, we do. The government should go ahead with its proposed tax cuts, but only to low and middle income earners. The tax cuts should compensate for the inflationary component of the cost of living ... <a title="Keith Rankin Opinion – Tax Cuts?" class="read-more" href="https://eveningreport.nz/2024/03/25/keith-rankin-opinion-tax-cuts/" aria-label="Read more about Keith Rankin Opinion – Tax Cuts?">Read more</a>
CoveragePost
March 21, 2024
Analysis by Keith Rankin. In this article, I will simply present the numbers for the key performance indicators (taken from tradingeconomics.com). And then I’ll give an update on GDP (gross domestic product) data, given today’s data release from Statistics New Zealand, and with the definition of ‘recession’ in mind. An important part of the context ... <a title="Keith Rankin Analysis – Economic Performance: New Zealand versus Japan" class="read-more" href="https://eveningreport.nz/2024/03/21/keith-rankin-analysis-economic-performance-new-zealand-versus-japan/" aria-label="Read more about Keith Rankin Analysis – Economic Performance: New Zealand versus Japan">Read more</a>
