Chief Economist & Political Strategist, CrossASEAN Research

Prasenjit K. Basu

PK Basu has 34 years experience covering Asia's economies and markets (equities, fixed income and currencies), including 20 years covering the global economy. He was Chief Economist (SE Asia & India) at Credit Suisse First Boston for 5 years, and Chief Asia (x-Jpn) Economist at Daiwa Securities for a similar period. Among other roles, he was global head of research at Maybank Kim Eng, Malaysia equity research head and chief ASEAN economist at Macquarie, ASEAN economist at UBS and the first chief economist at Khazanah Nasional (where he was co-head of research, and led all agri-business initiatives). PK Basu started his career in the Asia Service of WEFA (Wharton Econometrics) in Philadelphia in 1990, rising to be Director of their Asia Service in June 1994. 
PK's book, "Asia Reborn: A continent rises from the ravages of Colonialism and War to a New Dynamism" won the Tata Literature First Book Award (non-fiction) for 2018. It is the first single chronicle of the modern economic and political history of the whole of Asia (from Iraq and Turkey to Korea and Japan, and everything in between), told from an Asian perspective.

Chief Economist & Political Strategist

The Rot Deepens in Saudi Arabia, Threatening the Efficacy of the Trump-MbS Alliance

Saudi High-Wire Act: MBS Takes on OPEC+ and His Family Rivals at Once

Trump Orchestrates an OPEC+ Production Cut with G20 Backing: Crude to Stay Low

King Salman Bearing Gifts: Implications for ASEAN, Oil-Refining and Religion

REAL-Economics.com

Thematic (Sector/Industry)

Saudi arabia / Thematic (Sector/Industry)

<p><strong>-Founding King Abdul-aziz ibn Saud had 45 sons from 22 wives; of the sons, 6 became king in succession to their father. 36 of ibn Saud's sons had children of their own -- and ibn Saud is thus estimated to have had about 1000 grandsons. The first member of the "grandsons" generation who could be king is Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS, son of the incumbent, King Salman). But most of his 1000 first cousins are much older and more experienced than him. Purging them is the key to MBS surviving and</strong>…</p>

-Founding King Abdul-aziz ibn Saud had 45 sons from 22 wives; of the sons, 6 became king in succession to their father. 36 of ibn Saud's sons had children of their own -- and ibn Saud is thus estimated to have had about 1000 grandsons. The first member of the "grandsons" generation who could be king is Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS, son of the incumbent, King Salman). But most of his 1000 first cousins are much older and more experienced than him. Purging them is the key to MBS surviving and…

Something Is Rotten in the State of Saudi Arabia