This may be the Asian Century, but it's looking more like the era of Raytheon, Northrop Grumman, General Dynamics and the rest of the U.S. military-industrial complex.
I don't even mean U.S. President Donald Trump's Cold War era-like defense spending surge. I'm referring to the notable spike in geopolitical flare-ups in Asia: the about-face in China-North Korea relations; South Korea's THAAD missile defense system; Beijing building military installations on disputed South China Sea islands and atolls; distrust between Indonesia and Australia; President Vladimir Putin's Russia encroaching eastward; a drug war in the Philippines making neighbors uncomfortable; a Taiwanese skirmish with Uber that could troll a thin-skinned White House; the steady bombardment from Trump's Twitter feed.
Wary of Trump's unpredictability, Beijing is boosting its naval budget anew (no one knows the exact figure). But an even more precarious flashpoint could be North Korea, where Kim Jong Un is mocking China's President Xi Jinping as "dancing to the tune of the U.S." That's a bit like condemning your banker publicly and hoping the cash continues flowing. As Pyongyang and Beijing rumble, markets will surely get caught in the crossfire. Question is, how much?