Hamish McRae

One of the country’s most respected financial journalists and commentators Hamish McRae is an associate editor of The Independent. He was named Business and Finance Journalist of the Year 2006 at the British Press Awards. His latest book What Works was published in 2010.

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Hamish McRae: Ireland may have hit rock bottom – and survived

Economic Studies

Recently by Hamish McRae

Hamish McRae: Stable house prices are just what people need

Wednesday, 12 January 2011

Economic Studies

Hamish McRae: What we can learn from the early 1980s

Wednesday, 5 January 2011

Economic Studies

The Year in Review: The economy

Friday, 24 December 2010

After the belated bounce, it's time for the long, hard slog

Hamish McRae: A year that proved the world is moving East

Wednesday, 22 December 2010

Economic Studies

Hamish McRae: India must spread its wealth more evenly

Wednesday, 15 December 2010

It is a two-speed world. One half, the developed half, is desperately struggling to get things moving again. The other half, the rest of the world, is trying to rein back its growth. We talk about the recession. For many of the emerging economies, there was no recession. We worry about debts – personal, national, company and so on – and how we will repay. In much of the emerging world, there are such large savings that for many there is little need to borrow. We worry about the cuts in public spending. There, there are no cuts, for there is no need for them, and no bank rescues were needed either.

Hamish McRae: It's the weak who are being made to suffer

Wednesday, 1 December 2010

There has been so much anguish about the future of the eurozone post the Irish rescue – which other countries will need a bailout too? – that we tend not to notice the extent to which some parts of the European economy are doing very well, while other parts are lagging badly. So it is not just that financial conditions are diverging; economic conditions are diverging too.

The long view says the cuts are not deep enough

Tuesday, 30 November 2010

Hamish McRae: The OBR has looked at how public finances might develop over 40 years.

Hamish McRae: Ireland's crisis will change Europe forever

Wednesday, 24 November 2010

Markets sometimes move very fast. And so it has been with Ireland. The deal is not yet done though the broad outlines of the rescue package are clear. But we know it will be done and so the markets are already moving their focus to the plight of Portugal, which will most probably need further funding, and Spain, which may well need it. And then, who knows... Italy, Belgium, or even the euro itself?

Hamish McRae: Sovereign defaults in the eurozone are inevitable

Wednesday, 17 November 2010

It is about Ireland of course. But it is not just about Ireland – indeed it is mostly not about Ireland but about the rest of the eurozone and about taxation in Europe. To see why, consider the sequence of stories of the past few days.

Hamish McRae: This summit marks a shift in power to the East

Friday, 12 November 2010

Power is shifting East and if you want to take a moment when this has become glaringly evident, this week in Seoul is as good as any. It is not just that Korea is the host. Nor even is it the fact that the Group of 20, encompassing the largest emerging economies, is taking over from the old "rich club" of the Group of Seven. No, it is simply that this week it has become clear that the emerging countries have coped with the global downturn far better than the old developed world. Europe and North America go to the G20 hobbled by the debts of the most serious recession since the Second World War. Asia and much of Africa go there without having had a recession at all.

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