His 1996 investigative series uncovering the secret negotiation of a security treaty between Australia and Indonesia won the Australian journalism award, the Gold Walkley.

Bubble Man: Alan Greenspan and the Missing 7 Trillion Dollars (ISBN 978-0393062250), Hartcher's critique of Greenspan's and the Federal Reserve Board's management of the US economy through the years of irrational exuberance, was published in 2004 to a mixed reception in the US, but was met with greater critical enthusiasm internationally.

In 2007, Hartcher wrote Bipolar Nation: How to Win the 2007 Election in Black Inc's Quarterly Essay (ISBN 9781863954013), an analysis of the Australian electorate's collective psyche and what he argues is its peculiar susceptibility to manipulation.

In 2009, Hartcher published To The Bitter End: The Dramatic Story of the Fall of John Howard and the Rise of Kevin Rudd (Crows Nest, NSW:Allen & Unwin.

In 2011, Hartcher published The Sweet Spot: How Australia Made Its Own Luck – And Could Now Throw It All Away (Black Inc. ISBN 978-1-86395-497-6), for which in 2013 he was awarded the 2013 Ashurst Business Literature Prize.