The house mafia
New-build developers are acting like a cartel
Diary
I’ve worked for some media thoroughbreds — including the Financial Times, ITN and CNN — so I know the sense…
Dangerous addiction
Britain’s dependence on quantitative easing is alarming
The coronavirus is China’s biggest test since Tiananmen Square
Over 1,500 Chinese have died from the coronavirus, with tens of millions quarantined in their own homes. President Xi is…
Can Leo Varadkar defy the odds to win another term as Taoiseach?
Back in October, Boris Johnson and the Taoiseach Leo Varadkar met for ‘last-ditch’ Brexit talks at a hotel on the…
Nightmare on Downing Street: what could happen on Friday 13th?
Radicalism does not usually work out well for the Labour party. Michael Foot fought the 1983 general election on a…
The Brexit deal gives Northern Ireland an extraordinary opportunity
Ulster says No. So went the Unionist slogan against the Anglo-Irish Agreement which paved the way to ending the Troubles…
Germany’s ailing economy can’t afford a no-deal Brexit
The UK was the ‘sick man’ when we ‘joined Europe’ in 1973. Now, with Britain on the cusp of leaving,…
Varadkar’s backstop gamble could cost Ireland dearly
‘The government has relished wearing the green jersey on Brexit and standing up to the British with the help of…
It’s not anti-Irish to criticise Leo Varadkar
The relationship between the UK and the Republic of Ireland has ‘reached a hunger-strike low’, says a new study by…
The financial logic behind HS2 is collapsing. It’s time to pull the plug
No one is in any doubt about the problem facing Britain’s railways. Over the past decade, rail fares have risen…
Leo Varadkar has done his absolute best to damage Brexit
How did we get into this Brexit mess? Why is it proving so difficult to leave the EU? Was it…
Ten years on: the world the crash made
With September marking a decade since the Lehman Brothers implosion, stand by for a slew of economic retrospectives. Any meaningful…
Interview: Meet Mariana Mazzucato, big-state capitalism’s new champion
‘It was Plato who said storytellers rule the world,’ observes Mariana Mazzucato, her powerful voice tempered with a beaming smile,…
This is the stock market crash we needed
Since the crash ten years ago, stock markets the world over have been steadily recovering. The Dow Jones, a bellwether…
No deal is a good deal
So Theresa May and Jean-Claude Juncker enjoyed a ‘broad and constructive exchange’ during their working dinner in Brussels. Last time…
High finance, low tricks
Michael Lewis, author of The Big Short, rages against greedy bankers, weak politicians and timid journalists
Unequal struggle
Joseph Stiglitz, the left’s favourite economist,on making the free market work
Kilkenny Notebook
‘What is a Minsky moment, anyway?’ asks Gerry Stembridge, an Irish satirist. ‘I’ve been reading about them in the papers…
Bear market
The West will have to drop sanctions on Russia – or face another global economic crash
Back to the brink
Think we’ve done enough to avoid another financial crisis? Think again
Big state, big mistake
The West must wake up and reform, or face decline
The need for speed
How the US stock market became ‘a war of robots’
Putin’s winning hand
Russia is making the West look posturing, weak and divided
