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

Trump Is Not the Cause but an Effect of De-Globalisation; No Magical Rebound in Trade

Capital Markets/Property/ Military/Taiwan/Inner Mongolia

The Trade War Is Set to Worsen, as China Falls Far Short of Meeting Phase 1 Targets

The Trump Ineptitude Trade: Over or Just Beginning?

China: Hurtling Toward Crisis, Nudged Along by Trump

REAL-Economics.com

Thematic (Sector/Industry)

<p><strong>Trump's idea that "trade wars are easy to win" is true only in one narrow sense: the US, having the economy with the largest trade deficit, has substantially greater negotiating clout if it chooses to use it, especially as its trading partners are substantially more trade-dependent. With the economy strong, the US is willing to use that bargaining power: by upping the ante on tariffs to US$200bn of imports from China (more than China imports from the US annually), Trump is demonstrating that</strong>…</p>

Trump's idea that "trade wars are easy to win" is true only in one narrow sense: the US, having the economy with the largest trade deficit, has substantially greater negotiating clout if it chooses to use it, especially as its trading partners are substantially more trade-dependent. With the economy strong, the US is willing to use that bargaining power: by upping the ante on tariffs to US$200bn of imports from China (more than China imports from the US annually), Trump is demonstrating that…

Dow Jones Industrial Average (INDU INDEX)

Vanguard FTSE Canada All Cap Index ETF (VCN CN)

Trump's Upside-Down Trade Policy Wrecks Alliances & Makes US "Adversaries" Smile, but He Has a Point