The giant sucking sound of US profits is leaving Asia dry

American stocks offer better returns, while Treasuries give higher yields

    • Corporate America has spent the preceding decade exploiting low borrowing costs, while Asian corporate performance was dragged down by structural shocks.
    • Corporate America has spent the preceding decade exploiting low borrowing costs, while Asian corporate performance was dragged down by structural shocks. PHOTO: REUTERS
    Published Wed, Aug 5, 2026 · 06:00 PM

    FOR all the talk of a multipolar world, Asia’s export engines are discovering that they have not broken free from American hegemony; they have merely been repurposed to it.

    Chalk it up to just how much more profitable US companies have become compared with most of the developed world – and increasingly emerging markets – since the end of Covid-19.

    To some economists, the widening gulf in corporate fortunes is a central facet of American exceptionalism, with its fallout being keenly felt across Asia, a continent that not long ago was synonymous with economic boom.