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.

Hamish McRae: It will take time, but we'll recover

If officialdom seems over-optimistic in its forecasts, the markets seem too pessimistic

Recently by Hamish McRae

Hamish McRae: Will the world economy really start to grow next year?

Wednesday, 26 November 2008

The prospect is for a long haul and, if that's right, then our UK policy will prove wrong

Hamish McRae: A monumental debt that takes us back to the 70s

Tuesday, 25 November 2008

This is not going to work, is it? Having got us into a jam by borrowing too much, the way out is to borrow yet more. This is a gamble of monumental scale, a bet on the world economy growing again by the second half of next year. If it does recover, then the Chancellor may have succeeded in puffing up our own economy a bit during the downturn but the borrowing levels to achieve that are terrifying. If the world economy does not recover, the consequences don't bear thinking about.

Hamish McRae: Recessions serve a useful purpose

Wednesday, 19 November 2008

They force our whole society to figure out more effective ways of doing things

Hamish McRae: Should we keep our powder dry?

Wednesday, 19 November 2008

We are still in the early stages of the downturn but we can - in a funny way - see more about the policy response to it than we can about its scale and shape.

Hamish McRae: The bright side

Friday, 14 November 2008

The fall in the pound was given a new kick downwards by the Bank of England's Inflation Report, and is now as sharp was the decline after sterling was ejected from the ERM in 1992.

Hamish McRae: Cut taxes, but don't expect miracles

Wednesday, 12 November 2008

The Government can pull all the levers, but there's nothing at the other end

Hamish McRae: There's a following wind of goodwill, but very heavy weather lies ahead

Thursday, 6 November 2008

There isn't much time. The new administration takes office with a following wind of goodwill from America's trading and investment partners but a headwind of a sharply deteriorating domestic economy. That the world's markets were cool in their reaction to the election of Barack Obama signalled not a suspicious response to the voters' choice but rather a grim awareness of the scale of the economic problems ahead.