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1 week ago | 
thisismoney.co.uk | Hamish McRae
The bond vigilantes are on the warpath, and this is bad news for the Chancellor. They are prowling the streets everywhere, hunting down any government they think is borrowing too much and beating it up by pushing up long-term interest rates. The UK is not alone. The US and Japan also saw the cost of financing their national debt rise last week.
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2 weeks ago | 
thisismoney.co.uk | Hamish McRae
Don't get too excited about the rapprochement between the UK and the EU that Sir Keir Starmer is seeking to establish at the summit in London tomorrow. Even if all the argy-bargy about fishing rights and young Europeans coming to Britain is settled, any gains from a somewhat closer economic relationship with Europe will be marginal.
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3 weeks ago | 
spectator.com.au | Hamish McRae
We’ve learnt three things about the future of world trade from the temporary reprieve over tariffs that the US has given China – and China’s response to it. One is the markets are now confident that both countries will be sensible. The massively negative reaction they gave to ‘liberation day’ on 2 April signalled their hatred of uncertainty but also of stupidity.
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3 weeks ago | 
spectator.co.uk | Hamish McRae
We’ve learnt three things about the future of world trade from the temporary reprieve over tariffs that the US has given China – and China’s response to it. One is the markets are now confident that both countries will be sensible. The massively negative reaction they gave to ‘liberation day’ on 2 April signalled their hatred of uncertainty but also of stupidity.
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3 weeks ago | 
thisismoney.co.uk | Hamish McRae
It is not the greatest trade deal on earth. Forget about that. But the fact that the UK has reached agreements with both India and the US in the past week points to something important. We should try to realign our trade with the fast-growing countries of the rest of the world rather than the slow-growing ones of Europe. Growth matters more than proximity. As far as the US is concerned, this is fine. It's a limited agreement and in any case the devil is in the detail.
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1 month ago | 
thisismoney.co.uk | Hamish McRae
Maybe the financial markets are right about Donald Trump's tariff war not being too damaging to the global economy – and the naysayers warning of a collapse are going to be proved wrong. The big equity markets have recovered the ground they lost in the days after the US President's 'liberation day' on April 2. America's S&P 500 index has risen 14 per cent from its April lows, though it is still down on the year.
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1 month ago | 
thisismoney.co.uk | Hamish McRae
Rachel Reeves' trip to Washington last week caught the headlines over a potential trade deal with the US, her support for Donald Trump's concerns on global imbalances, plus the inevitable glum forecasts from the International Monetary Fund about the British economy. But, as far as the Chancellor's future is concerned, the important – and devastating – news was that the Government's borrowing is shooting out of control. It came from the Office for Budget Responsibility.
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1 month ago | 
msn.com | Hamish McRae
Microsoft Cares About Your PrivacyMicrosoft and our third-party vendors use cookies to store and access information such as unique IDs to deliver, maintain and improve our services and ads. If you agree, MSN and Microsoft Bing will personalise the content and ads that you see. You can select ‘I Accept’ to consent to these uses or click on ‘Manage preferences’ to review your options and exercise your right to object to Legitimate Interest where used.
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1 month ago | 
msn.com | Hamish McRae
Microsoft Cares About Your PrivacyMicrosoft and our third-party vendors use cookies to store and access information such as unique IDs to deliver, maintain and improve our services and ads. If you agree, MSN and Microsoft Bing will personalise the content and ads that you see. You can select ‘I Accept’ to consent to these uses or click on ‘Manage preferences’ to review your options and exercise your right to object to Legitimate Interest where used.
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1 month ago | 
thisismoney.co.uk | Hamish McRae
It is time to reflect, and the long weekend gives us a chance to do so. We all need respite from the chaos, for this is not, from an economic or financial perspective, a joyful Eastertide at all. So let's step back and focus on the things we know, or at least can reasonably expect, to happen in the weeks ahead. Here are six. The first thing to say is that the chaos will not continue for ever. It can't. The costs for everyone are too high.
