The rise and fall, and rise again, of Sea Ltd. Sea is proving that e-commerce is viable in SE Asia - if you have a huge market and other profitable business segments to cross subsidize losses in online retail. thediplomat.com/2025/05/the-ri…

sundanese food 👍👍

"When it comes to purchasing big-ticket weapons systems, political economic considerations cannot be ignored. Sweeteners such as technology transfer, upskilling and indigenous production often play a critical role in these decisions." 👇👇 thediplomat.com/2025/05/china-…

public transit is good, we should build more of it

Wheel of Time on Amazon has been cancelled. I am sad, in some way. But it was a truly terrible show.

🚂🚂🚂

Vingroup subsidiary VinSpeed has tossed its hat in the ring to build a $61 billion high speed rail. But how realistic is this plan? thediplomat.com/2025/05/how-re…

This new Research Assistant is not really working out.

Anyway you look at it, Vietnam has opened up a tremendous amount of investment in renewabe energy over the last few years. But, it came at a cost. thediplomat.com/2025/06/why-vi…

Malaysia's clean energy transition is gathering (a little bit of) steam. Here's why the policy roadmap they put out in 2023 is a good fit for the country's political economy. 👇👇 thediplomat.com/2025/06/why-th…

With pandemics and trade wars, the last few years have been especially unfriendly for net exporters like Thailand. Unfortunately, most of the things that will lead to stronger growth (revival of exports, consumer debt relief) won't be easy fixes. thediplomat.com/2025/06/why-th…

Pretty remarkable that Indonesia now has two state investment funds when a few years ago it had zero. Sign of the times. 👇👇 thediplomat.com/2025/07/why-in…

Seminyak during the high season is very crowded but its worth it for these views.

As I predicted in April countries are making concessions to Trump's trade demands to make him feel like he's getting a win. But those with big trade surpluses, like Vietnam, are less willing to play this game. 👇👇 thediplomat.com/2025/07/whats-…

Post-pandemic tourism in SE Asia is recovering at different rates - some markets have bounced back strongly, others more slowly. But is this necessarily a bad thing? That depends. 👇👇 thediplomat.com/2025/08/southe…

Grab and Go-jek aren't just rivals in the ride hailing and food delivery business - competition between the two is heating up in Indonesia's digital banking scene as well. 👇👇 thediplomat.com/2025/08/indone…

Why are some digital banks in Southeast Asia growing rapidly while others aren't? I have some ideas 👇👇 thediplomat.com/2025/09/what-m…

Slowing growth is forcing the Thai government to run deficits and straining its fiscal capacity. Can they keep doing this until exports recover and global economic conditions turn more favorable? thediplomat.com/2025/10/thaila…

Interesting things happening in Vietnam's stock market these days. 📈 thediplomat.com/2025/10/vietna…

State owned investment funds are on the rise in SE Asia, including in some unlikely places. Why? I think it has something to do with the geopolitical churn we are currently living through. eastasiaforum.org/2025/10/24/the…