CoveragePost
August 6, 2020
Analysis by Keith Rankin. Money as an Unfortunate Metaphor for Cost Especially but not only in election years, when any new policy is proposed by a major party, a ubiquitous refrain follows: “what will it cost?”; “where will the money come from?”. The context is that cost is the spending of ‘coin’. Indeed I once ... <a title="Keith Rankin Analysis – Counting the Cost of Government Action and Inaction" class="read-more" href="https://eveningreport.nz/2020/08/06/keith-rankin-analysis-counting-the-cost-of-government-action-and-inaction/" aria-label="Read more about Keith Rankin Analysis – Counting the Cost of Government Action and Inaction">Read more</a>
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July 30, 2020
Analysis by Keith Rankin. Rob Muldoon was a pugnacious and abrasive prime minister of New Zealand who was treated unkindly by commentators – and even historians – in the aftermath of his period in office (1975 to 1984). Hopefully, future historians will treat him in a much more objective way. It is important to note ... <a title="Keith Rankin Analysis – Rob Muldoon and Judith Collins" class="read-more" href="https://eveningreport.nz/2020/07/30/keith-rankin-analysis-rob-muldoon-and-judith-collins/" aria-label="Read more about Keith Rankin Analysis – Rob Muldoon and Judith Collins">Read more</a>
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July 9, 2020
Editorial by Selwyn Manning. New National Party leader Todd Muller has presented his party’s vision for New Zealand as it grapples with the economic cost of the Covid-19 pandemic. But Muller’s vision was unsurprisingly National while surprisingly short on economic detail. And, after a week where sordid privacy breaches plagued the party – leaving Muller ... <a title="UPDATED: Leadership, Vision, and Combating a Machiavellian Culture – Is Todd Muller National’s Solution?" class="read-more" href="https://eveningreport.nz/2020/07/09/leadership-vision-and-combating-a-machiavellian-culture-is-todd-muller-nationals-solution/" aria-label="Read more about UPDATED: Leadership, Vision, and Combating a Machiavellian Culture – Is Todd Muller National’s Solution?">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 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 26, 2020
Analysis by Keith Rankin. From an interview with Geoff Bertram, on The Panel, RNZ 22 May 2020 Wallace Chapman: “Are we setting up our future generations, our future children, to be born into a life of national debt?” [He mentions the on-line Fabian Society discussion, held on 23 May, and introduces Geoff Bertram.] Wallace Chapman: ... <a title="Keith Rankin Analysis – Government and Money during a Major Economic Downturn" class="read-more" href="https://eveningreport.nz/2020/05/26/keith-rankin-analysis-government-and-money-during-a-major-economic-downturn/" aria-label="Read more about Keith Rankin Analysis – Government and Money during a Major Economic Downturn">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>
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May 21, 2020
Analysis by Keith Rankin. The chart above shows how a spending pie-chart may differ for a closed economy, compared to its income chart. For this example, the government sector has a financial deficit (ie a budget deficit) while the household sector has a financial surplus. In this case the government sector slice is 30% of ... <a title="Keith Rankin Chart Analysis – National Income, Spending and Debt" class="read-more" href="https://eveningreport.nz/2020/05/21/keith-rankin-chart-analysis-national-income-spending-and-debt/" aria-label="Read more about Keith Rankin Chart Analysis – National Income, Spending and Debt">Read more</a>
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May 20, 2020
Analysis by Keith Rankin. The Commentariat There is a regular commentariat who appear on places such as ‘The Panel’ on Radio New Zealand (4pm on weekdays), and on panels on television shows such as Newshub Nation (TV3, weekends) and Q+A (TV1, Mondays). Generally, these panellists come out in favour of targeted assistance to the misfortunate, ... <a title="Keith Rankin Analysis – Universal versus Targeted Assistance, a Muddled Dichotomy" class="read-more" href="https://eveningreport.nz/2020/05/20/keith-rankin-analysis-universal-versus-targeted-assistance-a-muddled-dichotomy/" aria-label="Read more about Keith Rankin Analysis – Universal versus Targeted Assistance, a Muddled Dichotomy">Read more</a>
