Asia has spent the last couple of months fretting about a "Trump tantrum" in world markets. But what if the U.S. president-elect does more to make this region great again than damage its prospects?
This most contrarian of views from Warren Allderige, chief executive office at Pacific Harbor Group, is worth considering as a uniquely uncertain year gets underway. The rationale: Donald Trump's team lashing out at what it considers predatory practices, threatening trade wars, seeking to pull jobs back to the United States and generally turning inward is a wake-up call to a region that has grown dangerously complacent. Think of it as Trump-inspired economic Darwinism.
"I think there could be a 'Trump Effect' in Asia — people not wanting to be left behind," Hong Kong-based Allderige tells me.