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
June 25, 2025
Analysis by Keith Rankin. It’s time that the nations of the world (or at least the influential western nations) accept the reality that all the lands that constituted 1920-1948 Mandatory Palestine should be formally recognised as a single nation-state; ideally called Palestine Israel or Israel-Palestine, but more realistically called Israel. In other words, the never-viable ... <a title="Keith Rankin Analysis – Palestine Israel: Implementing a One-State Solution" class="read-more" href="https://eveningreport.nz/2025/06/25/keith-rankin-analysis-palestine-israel-implementing-a-one-state-solution/" aria-label="Read more about Keith Rankin Analysis – Palestine Israel: Implementing a One-State Solution">Read more</a>
CoveragePost
June 13, 2025
Analysis and Notes by Selwyn Manning: Prep for Radio New Zealand – Israel Strikes Against Iran – June 13, 2025. Listen to the audio from 3:00 minutes in. Over the last 24 hours, the atomic control agency IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) formed a view at its UN Geneva meeting, that there was so-called evidence ... <a title="Selwyn Manning Analysis: Israel clearly saw an opportunity to strike Iran. Here’s the trip-wire…" class="read-more" href="https://eveningreport.nz/2025/06/13/selwyn-manning-analysis-israel-clearly-saw-an-opportunity-to-strike-iran-heres-the-trip-wire/" aria-label="Read more about Selwyn Manning Analysis: Israel clearly saw an opportunity to strike Iran. Here’s the trip-wire…">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
April 10, 2025
Essay by Keith Rankin. ‘Rational Expectations’ is a problematic theory in economics. Here I want to focus more away from economics; and more on the meanings of ‘rationality’ in decision-making, than on the problematic ambiguity of the word ‘expect’ (and its derivatives such as ‘expectations’). ‘Expectation’ here means what we believe ‘will’ happen, not ‘should’ ... <a title="Keith Rankin Essay – Rational Expectations, Intelligence, and War" class="read-more" href="https://eveningreport.nz/2025/04/10/keith-rankin-essay-rational-expectations-intelligence-and-war/" aria-label="Read more about Keith Rankin Essay – Rational Expectations, Intelligence, and War">Read more</a>
CoveragePost
March 27, 2025
Analysis by Keith Rankin. While World War Two (WW2) always was a set of intersecting conflicts – with Japan fighting a war of imperialism in East Asia and the Western Pacific – the war in Europe has been cast as the ultimate battle of ‘Good’ versus ‘Evil’. Hence the narrative of the Good War. Further, ... <a title="Keith Rankin Analysis – Learning the correct lessons from World War Two in Europe" class="read-more" href="https://eveningreport.nz/2025/03/27/keith-rankin-analysis-learning-the-correct-lessons-from-world-war-two-in-europe/" aria-label="Read more about Keith Rankin Analysis – Learning the correct lessons from World War Two in Europe">Read more</a>
CoveragePost
March 13, 2025
Opinion-Analysis – by Keith Rankin. Former ambassador Phil Goff is the latest (so far) and (probably) the least of many ‘statesmen’ who have invoked Munich and the ‘resolute’ Winston Churchill (a backbench MP in 1938) in the cause of good-war mongering. (Refer Winston Peters sacks Phil Goff as UK High Commissioner RNZ 6 March 2025, ... <a title="Opinion-Analysis by Keith Rankin – Invoking Munich, ‘Appeasement’, and the ‘Lessons of History’" class="read-more" href="https://eveningreport.nz/2025/03/13/opinion-analysis-by-keith-rankin-invoking-munich-appeasement-and-the-lessons-of-history/" aria-label="Read more about Opinion-Analysis by Keith Rankin – Invoking Munich, ‘Appeasement’, and the ‘Lessons of History’">Read more</a>
CoveragePost
March 12, 2025
Opinion Analysis by Keith Rankin. This story, Germany to ease government debt limits in major step aimed at boosting economy, defense spending,AP, 6 March 2015, reflects my comments in Germany’s Election 2025. (And note Reforming the debt brake: Now or never! Landesbank Baden-Württemberg, 28 Feb 2025. And Germany’s election victor must ditch its debt rules—immediately, ... <a title="Opinion Analysis by Keith Rankin – Dodgy Democracy, the Fiscal Double Standard, and the application of the Domino Theory to Ukraine" class="read-more" href="https://eveningreport.nz/2025/03/12/opinion-analysis-by-keith-rankin-dodgy-democracy-the-fiscal-double-standard-and-the-application-of-the-domino-theory-to-ukraine/" aria-label="Read more about Opinion Analysis by Keith Rankin – Dodgy Democracy, the Fiscal Double Standard, and the application of the Domino Theory to Ukraine">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>