HAMISH

Rachel Reeves' plan last week to ease the squeeze on families through the summer was absurd. The Chancellor dropped the headline-grabbing scheme to put a cap on the price of essential foods in supermarkets, but the very fact she even…

Is artificial intelligence a bubble? For Americans, thanks to ever-higher valuations on top AI firms it's been another week of euphoria. The S&P 500 index hit a new high on Thursday with the world's most valuable firm, Nvidia,…

Big Tech marches on. Last week the S&P 500 index on Wall Street hit yet another all-time record, and Nvidia again topped $5 trillion (£3.7 trillion) in market value, having first passed that milestone in October.That's more than all…

Here's a surprise. According to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in Washington DC, the UK is once again the fifth-largest economy in the world, ahead of India instead of behind it.It was a story that was rather overlooked amid all…

The great British job machine is faltering, and the hardest hit are the young. For most of this century the economy generated a boom in employment.In 2000 there were 27.3 million jobs. By October last year there were 34.2 million of…

Could it be that the markets are right and the massed ranks of commentators – at least on this side of the Atlantic – are wrong?Or to put the question another way, could the uncertainties that Donald Trump has generated, most recently…

By HAMISH MCRAE Updated: 16:53 EST, 3 January 2026 <!-- --> <!-- --> <!-- --> <!-- It's…

What a year 2025 has been. If you had known what would be thrown at the world economy, especially Donald Trump's tariff war, you would not have expected US equities to be ending the year around their all-time highs.Come to think of it,…

The Santa rally is in full cry. The FTSE 100 index is up more than 300 points, or 3.5 per cent, in the past month, and it is perfectly possible that it will hit 10,000 by the year end.Shares often rise towards the year end, hence the…

By HAMISH MCRAE Updated: 06:28 EST, 16 November 2025 <!-- --> <!-- --> <!-- --> <!-- …