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, Chief Economist at ICICI Securities, 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

Why Italy Must Default: It Is a Question of when Not If.

Thai Macro Watch (May 18): What's Cooking in the World Around Thailand?

Global Winner of This Decade: Vladimir Putin

EU: One Step Forward in Germany, but Two Big Steps Back in Italy

Germany Finally Abandons Fiscal Austerity: Good for Growth, Bad for Bonds

Merkel's Triumph Masks the Longer-Term Challenges from the Empowered Fringes

REAL-Economics.com

Thematic (Sector/Industry)

<p><strong>This week, the left-nihilist Five Star Movement (led by 31 year old university drop-out Luigi DiMaio) and the far-right League (led by Matteo Salvini) will form a coalition government in Italy, committed to a two-tiered flat tax (15% and 20%), a "basic income" of €780/month for poor families from next year, repeal of the 2011 pension reforms, the early expulsion of 500,000 immigrants, and the scrapping of all sanctions imposed by the EU on Russia. The combination of the fiscal fantasies of left</strong>…</p>

This week, the left-nihilist Five Star Movement (led by 31 year old university drop-out Luigi DiMaio) and the far-right League (led by Matteo Salvini) will form a coalition government in Italy, committed to a two-tiered flat tax (15% and 20%), a "basic income" of €780/month for poor families from next year, repeal of the 2011 pension reforms, the early expulsion of 500,000 immigrants, and the scrapping of all sanctions imposed by the EU on Russia. The combination of the fiscal fantasies of left…

EU: A New Crisis as Italy Takes a Fiscally Profligate and Russophile Turn