CoveragePost
September 21, 2025
Analysis by Keith Rankin. Yesterday the provisional Quarterly Economic Growth data was released. It showed that, seasonally adjusted, remunerated output (ie GDP, gross domestic product) fell 0.9% in April-to-June compared to January-to-March. While the resulting media hoo-ha overstated the significance of this result, there was still very little coverage of the underlying problem; New Zealand ... <a title="Keith Rankin Chart Analysis – Structural Recession" class="read-more" href="https://eveningreport.nz/2025/09/21/keith-rankin-chart-analysis-structural-recession/" aria-label="Read more about Keith Rankin Chart Analysis – Structural Recession">Read more</a>
CoveragePost
September 21, 2025
Analysis by Keith Rankin. Over the last week I have subverted the western geo-cultural tropes of ‘Good versus Evil’ and ‘Beautiful versus Ugly’. (Geopolitical Rugby: Bad plays Evil, for the final World Cup 16 Sep 2025 and Lookism11 Sep 2025; both on Scoop and Evening Report.) Here I consider our new version of the former ... <a title="Keith Rankin on Nuclear Calculus" class="read-more" href="https://eveningreport.nz/2025/09/21/keith-rankin-on-nuclear-calculus/" aria-label="Read more about Keith Rankin on Nuclear Calculus">Read more</a>
CoveragePost
September 16, 2025
Essay by Keith Rankin. Today’s geopolitics is already coming very close to a war (mainly of words, so far) between Asia and Europe (both entities broadly and loosely defined). For geopolitical purposes we may call this a war of hubris and cant between East and West. Conveniently for the West, the words East and Evil ... <a title="Keith Rankin Essay – Geopolitical rugby: Bad plays Evil, for the final World Cup" class="read-more" href="https://eveningreport.nz/2025/09/16/keith-rankin-essay-geopolitical-rugby-bad-plays-evil-for-the-final-world-cup/" aria-label="Read more about Keith Rankin Essay – Geopolitical rugby: Bad plays Evil, for the final World Cup">Read more</a>
CoveragePost
September 15, 2025
Earlier today, New Zealand Prime Minister Christopher Luxon said his cabinet would not decide on whether to formally recognise Palestine as a state for some weeks to come. Luxon’s announcement drew criticism from advocacy groups, labelling his position as weak and cowardly. Luxon claimed the issue was ‘complex’ and New Zealanders should not expect a ... <a title="New Zealand PM Luxon Labelled as Weak and Cowardly After Delaying Decision on Palestine" class="read-more" href="https://eveningreport.nz/2025/09/15/new-zealand-pm-luxon-labelled-as-weak-and-cowardly-after-delaying-decision-on-palestine/" aria-label="Read more about New Zealand PM Luxon Labelled as Weak and Cowardly After Delaying Decision on Palestine">Read more</a>
CoveragePost
September 15, 2025
Earlier today, the New Zealand Prime Minister Christopher Luxon said his cabinet would not decide on whether to formally recognise Palestine as a state for some weeks. Luxon’s announcement drew criticism from advocacy groups labelling his position as weak. For more on this issue, see; New Zealand PM Luxon Labelled as Weak and Cowardly After ... <a title="UPDATED – Recognition of Palestine as a State – Advocacy Group Urges New Zealand Government to Listen to large Majority of Citizens" class="read-more" href="https://eveningreport.nz/2025/09/15/recognition-of-palestine-as-a-state-advocacy-group-urges-new-zealand-government-to-listen-to-large-majority-of-citizens/" aria-label="Read more about UPDATED – Recognition of Palestine as a State – Advocacy Group Urges New Zealand Government to Listen to large Majority of Citizens">Read more</a>
CoveragePost
September 14, 2025
Analysis by Keith Rankin Keith Rankin – One of our least-discussed discriminatory ‘isms’ is what I call ‘lookism’. Discrimination on the basis of a person’s or a group’s appearance, noting in particular features of ancestry, age, and culture. Discrimination based on how individuals and peoples look to other people. Discrimination on the basis of the presence ... <a title="Keith Rankin on Lookism" class="read-more" href="https://eveningreport.nz/2025/09/14/keith-rankin-on-lookism/" aria-label="Read more about Keith Rankin on Lookism">Read more</a>
CoveragePost
September 5, 2025
Essay by Keith Rankin. The failing nation-states of Western Europe are not peacemakers. They are warmongers, the ‘Coalition of the Willing’ – the Coalition of Sanctimony and Hypocrisy. They are trying to frame the current geopolitical struggle between a unipolar versus a multipolar world order as a struggle of the ‘Democratic’ Axis of Good against ... <a title="Keith Rankin Essay – The Coalition of Sanctimony and Hypocrisy" class="read-more" href="https://eveningreport.nz/2025/09/05/keith-rankin-essay-the-coalition-of-sanctimony-and-hypocrisy/" aria-label="Read more about Keith Rankin Essay – The Coalition of Sanctimony and Hypocrisy">Read more</a>
CoveragePost
August 31, 2025
Analysis by Keith Rankin. Public policy in New Zealand is paralysed by an unwavering mis-framing of the current economic stagnation. A key part of the problem is the popular attachment to the phrase ‘cost of living crisis’ as a catch-all for contemporary economic malaise. The first task towards clear thinking is to disentangle ‘cost of ... <a title="Keith Rankin Analysis – Intellectual Paralysis: Cost of Living, Inflation, and Interest Costs" class="read-more" href="https://eveningreport.nz/2025/08/31/keith-rankin-analysis-intellectual-paralysis-cost-of-living-inflation-and-interest-costs/" aria-label="Read more about Keith Rankin Analysis – Intellectual Paralysis: Cost of Living, Inflation, and Interest Costs">Read more</a>
CoveragePost
August 25, 2025
Article by Matt Robson, former Alliance Party and New Zealand Government Cabinet Minister. The Initial vote on Kiwibank in the Labour-Alliance government in 2000 was 16 Labour against to 4 Alliance for. I was there when this was reversed, and in 2001 the 4 insurgent Alliance Ministers – Jim Anderton, Sandra Lee, Laila Harre and ... <a title="Matt Robson: The Public’s Kiwibank on the Auction Block" class="read-more" href="https://eveningreport.nz/2025/08/25/matt-robson-the-publics-kiwibank-on-the-auction-block/" aria-label="Read more about Matt Robson: The Public’s Kiwibank on the Auction Block">Read more</a>
CoveragePost
August 22, 2025
Analysis by Keith Rankin. This year, the heated non-debate in Aotearoa New Zealand about pay equity, has left important answers unquestioned. Equal Pay versus Pay Equity The first point that must be made is to distinguish ‘equal pay’ from ‘pay equity’. Equal pay means, for different identity groups, the same pay for the same work. ... <a title="Keith Rankin Analysis – Equal Pay, Pay Equity, and Cost-of-Living Narratives" class="read-more" href="https://eveningreport.nz/2025/08/22/keith-rankin-analysis-equal-pay-pay-equity-and-cost-of-living-narratives/" aria-label="Read more about Keith Rankin Analysis – Equal Pay, Pay Equity, and Cost-of-Living Narratives">Read more</a>
CoveragePost
August 15, 2025
Analysis by Keith Rankin. World War One is really the first conflagration of a Great World War which lasted between 1914 and 1945. That great war was a ‘”game” of two halves’ with an extended and less violent mid-war phase; total war, with an interregnum which exacerbated rather than resolved the trigger issues of early ... <a title="Keith Rankin Analysis – Goodies and Baddies? Lessons since the World War of 1914" class="read-more" href="https://eveningreport.nz/2025/08/15/keith-rankin-analysis-goodies-and-baddies-lessons-since-the-world-war-of-1914/" aria-label="Read more about Keith Rankin Analysis – Goodies and Baddies? Lessons since the World War of 1914">Read more</a>
CoveragePost
August 8, 2025
Analysis by Keith Rankin. In the wake of the recent release of labour force data (Household Labour Force Survey, HLFS, Nicola Willis bemoans ‘glass half empty’ view of unemployment figures, RNZ 6 August 2025), 1918-1920 National Party Leader Simon Bridges, has called for economic “stimulus” to rescue in particular the dire Auckland economy. (See Call ... <a title="Keith Rankin Analysis – Stimulate or Suffocate, in the light of Older Women’s Spending?" class="read-more" href="https://eveningreport.nz/2025/08/08/keith-rankin-analysis-stimulate-or-suffocate-in-the-light-of-older-womens-spending/" aria-label="Read more about Keith Rankin Analysis – Stimulate or Suffocate, in the light of Older Women’s Spending?">Read more</a>