Business
The War in Iran Has Upended the Global Economy. The U.S. Has Been Mostly Spared.
The fallout from two months of war in Iran is shuttering textile mills in India and Bangladesh, grounding airplanes in Ireland, Poland and Germany, and prompting energy rationing in Vietnam, South Korea and Thailand. The only country, it seems, that has been relatively spared from the economic chaos is the one that started the war: the United States.
While warning signs of a recession are flashing across countries in Asia and Europe, the United States is likely to outperform most of the world’s advanced economies. Growth is steady and unemployment low. “It’s still hard to bet against the U.S. economy,” the Royal Bank of Canada said last week.
The United Arab Emirates, one of the world’s richest countries, with sovereign wealth funds that total more than $2 trillion, has asked the United States for a financial lifeline in the wake of missile-damaged gas fields and a halt to shipping in the Strait of Hormuz.
In just eight weeks — less time than it takes to age a traditional English fruitcake — the global economic outlook has been knocked sideways.
The worst economic pain will be felt in poor countries, where consumers cannot afford higher energy prices, and governments cannot afford to provide aid to offset the costs. And as financing tightens, the cost of desperately needed borrowing for these countries increases.
Soaring prices now for fuel and fertilizer mean higher prices for food later in the year. In Africa, “food insecurity looms large,” the International Monetary Fund said last week. In the Asia-Pacific region, millions of people are at risk of falling into poverty because of the conflict, the United Nations Development Program warned.
Already, many countries in Asia are grappling with fuel shortages, which will grow only worse as the war drags on, said Raghuram Rajan, an economist at the University of Chicago and a former governor of the Reserve Bank of India.
“The shortages will start hitting more and more,” said Mr. Rajan, who formerly served in a top role at the International Monetary Fund. In many countries, the real consequences are only just beginning to be felt.
Energy inventories are running out, and some shipments have stopped. “The water’s on the boil, the frog is in the water and the temperature’s rising,” Mr. Rajan said. “And now, increasingly, you’re going to see industry shut down.”
Steel plants in India and automakers in Japan have cut production because of higher energy prices and concerns about reduced demand. Toy factories in China, already suffering from U.S. tariffs, are contending with discontent from thousands of workers angry about losing their jobs.
One morning last week, in Firozabad, a city in northern India, workers were idly milling at an open-air labor market. “Because of the war, work has dwindled,” said Muhammad Waseem, a plasterer. He was haggling with a potential employer who wanted to pay him 500 rupees ($5.30) for a construction job, significantly less than what he usually earns.
Aas Muhammad, 25, a laborer who loads bricks and cement onto trucks, had walked five miles to the market from his home. He was willing to take the 500 rupees, but even that wouldn’t go far. A kilogram of cooking gas that would normally cost 80 rupees now costs 200.
Millions of other Indian workers who usually live and work in the Emirates and Saudi Arabia, and collectively send billions of dollars in remittances home every year, are stranded abroad without work.
Shortages of other commodities that ordinarily travel through the Strait of Hormuz, like helium, aluminum and naphtha, are affecting the supplies of a dizzying array of other goods, from condoms to microchips.
Of course, the U.S. economy isn’t entirely insulated from the shock. Gas prices have jumped more than $1 a gallon since the war began, a tax on American consumers that has hit lower-income households especially hard.
On Wall Street, banks have marked their growth forecasts down and their inflation forecasts up since the war began and have all but given up on the possibility of further interest rate cuts before the fall at the earliest.
Compared with the rest of the world, though, the impact on the domestic economy has been muted. Consumer spending remains strong, layoffs remain low and forecasters still expect solid growth this year.
Economists say it would take a much more significant spike in oil prices, perhaps as high as $150 a barrel, for them to begin worrying seriously about the possibility of a recession in the United States.
That is not the case elsewhere, where the dreaded combination of slower growth and higher inflation is already raising alarms about stagflation.
Around the world, scarcity and high prices are setting off a worrying cycle of reduced economic activity: High prices lower the demand for fuel, and the lower demand, in turn, shrinks production, employment and spending.
The German airline Lufthansa canceled 20,000 flights scheduled for this summer. As jet fuel prices have doubled, all 20 of the world’s top air carriers have cut at least some flights, according to Freightos, a digital shipping marketplace. Fewer flights cut sharply into tourism and business travel, reducing spending at hotels, restaurants and retailers.
For the United States, the biggest advantage is that, unlike most of its global peers, it produces more oil and gas than it consumes. That doesn’t mean it is unaffected by what happens in global energy markets, but it helps dampen the impact.
The U.S. economy is also heavily based on services and depends relatively little on the energy-intensive manufacturing industries that have been hit hardest by the spike in oil prices. And it went into the war with a stronger economy than many other countries, giving it more of a buffer against a slowdown.
“We’re not feeling the same pain the rest of the world is,” said Jason Bordoff, the founding director of the Center on Global Energy Policy at Columbia University.
“In a shock this large, the physical shortages are showing up in Asia, and they’re trickling through to Europe,” he added. “We’re the last to feel the effects.”
The toll on the U.S. economy will grow if the war drags on. Higher fuel prices will further raise the cost of shipping, and that could drive up prices for other consumer goods.
“We don’t know how long this shock will last, and I think if it persists we’ll probably be having a very different conversation six months from now,” said Ben Harris, a Brookings Institution economist who served as chief economist at the Treasury Department under the Biden administration.
Even if the war were to end tomorrow, most energy executives and political analysts doubt that traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, a critically important shipping lane for oil and gas, will ever return to the way it was before. The war has demonstrated how easily free passage can be stopped, raising risks and costs.
The shortfall caused by the halt in oil and gas production and the missile damage inflicted on infrastructure also mean that oil prices are likely to remain elevated or rise over the next four years, according to High Frequency Economics, a research consulting firm.
“We are more resilient to energy shocks, but I don’t think that’s going to last,” said Adam Posen, president of the Peterson Institute for International Economics.
Many countries, including allies, had already been re-evaluating their relationship because of President Trump’s punitive trade policies and erratic behavior, including his demands to take over Greenland.
Now American pre-eminence has been undercut by Mr. Trump’s decision to start a war with Iran that has had severe economic consequences for much of the world, Mr. Posen said.
“As a snapshot at the moment, the U.S. is less directly troubled,” Mr. Posen added. “I wouldn’t make too much of that.”
Keith Bradsher contributed reporting from Beijing, and Alex Travelli from Firozabad, India.
Business
In a first, animated movies receive film tax credits in California
Walt Disney Co.’s “Phineas and Ferb,” “The Simpsons Movie 2” and an untitled DreamWorks movie are the first animated feature films to receive a California tax credit under the state’s updated incentive program.
The movies are among the 38 projects chosen in the latest round of the production incentive program, the California Film Commission said Thursday.
In total, the productions are expected to employ more than 5,300 cast and crew members, more than 20,800 background actors and generate nearly $800 million in economic activity throughout the state.
Together, the projects will involve 1,019 shoot days, with more than 45% happening outside of the Southern California region.
“We’re seeing the real-world economic impact of this program reach communities across the entire state,” Colleen Bell, director of the California Film Commission, said in a statement. “That’s what this program is about: creating good-paying jobs and supporting local businesses, while bolstering California’s creative economy in regions across the state.”
In addition to Disney Entertainment Television’s “Phineas and Ferb,” which received $3.5 million in credits, and Disney-owned 20th Century Studios’ “The Simpsons Movie 2,” which was awarded $21.9 million, other awardees include Netflix’s upcoming reboot of “13 Going on 30” ($10.9 million), a film from Laverne Cox called “Black is Blue” ($1.3 million) and the Will Ferrell-produced “Self Help” ($2.6 million).
An untitled Paramount crime thriller received the highest amount — $25.9 million — while DreamWorks’ untitled animated film received $24.7 million in credit allocation.
DreamWorks Animation Chief Operating Officer Randy Lake said the tax incentive would have a “massive impact” on the film’s budget and allow the studio to hire more local talent.
Animated movies and shows became eligible for California’s film and TV tax incentive after the state bolstered its program last year. In recent years, other countries such as Ireland and Canada have added special tax incentives targeting animated projects, luring productions out of the U.S.
Business
Confusion and Fright at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner After Shots Were Fired
The spring pea and burrata appetizer course had been distributed and the schmoozing hour of Saturday’s White House Correspondents’ Association dinner had begun when a small commotion occurred toward the back of the Washington Hilton ballroom shortly past 8:30 p.m.
It might have been an upturned catering cart, or perhaps a scuffle with protesters. Then security officers began sprinting down the aisles toward the elevated dais, where President Trump, along with Vice President JD Vance and the first lady, Melania Trump, had taken their seats just a few minutes earlier.
There were no announcements or cries of “get down.” Instead, a sense of danger spread across the room like a wave. Hundreds of the country’s top media executives, editors in chief and prominent television anchors, clad in tuxedos and evening gowns, instinctively dropped to the floor, crouching beside chairs and ducking under tables.
A nauseous silence descended, punctuated by small gasps and whimpers. The loudest sounds were those of the security officers racing — and in some cases leaping over chairs and guests — to evacuate senior administration officials from the tightly packed ballroom.
No one had a hint as to what was going on — except that Mr. Trump had been rushed from the stage, which was now occupied by a pair of security officials brandishing large guns. (Later in the evening, officials said that an armed man had charged a security checkpoint and that a Secret Service officer had been shot.)
Erika Kirk, the widow of the conservative activist Charlie Kirk and a guest of Fox News, crawled beneath her table, where she was comforted by the anchor Harris Faulkner and Trey Yingst, the network’s chief foreign correspondent. From beside his chair, Brian Stelter, CNN’s media correspondent, held his iPhone aloft, recording video of whatever scenes were unfolding above.
The health secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., and his wife, the actress Cheryl Hines, looked pained as guards hustled them out.
Others appeared relatively unfazed. Lloyd Blankfein, the former chief executive of Goldman Sachs, was sitting with CBS News journalists toward the front of the room when the emergency occurred. As the confusion unfolded, Mr. Blankfein turned to his seatmate and asked, “Are you going to finish that salad?”
After less than five minutes, the crowd sensed that any immediate threat had passed. Guests shakily returned to their feet, some wiping away tears.
Journalists are accustomed to chronicling moments of unexpected violence, but few witness them in real time. Even as some in the room rushed toward the exits, dozens of reporters dialed law enforcement sources to figure out what had happened. Network executives and editors ordered up coverage plans. Susan Zirinsky, a veteran producer at CBS News, stood on a chair in a sparkly sequined jacket with a phone pressed to her ear.
Mr. Yingst, of Fox News, called into his control room to deliver on-air updates. Jacqui Heinrich, one of the network’s White House correspondents, had been seated on the dais, and she filed a report from backstage. CNN aired Mr. Stelter’s iPhone footage live. “It wasn’t until I stopped streaming half an hour later that the gravity of the moment really registered,” he said.
Politico’s editor in chief, Jonathan Greenberger, ordered several black-tie-clad reporters to commandeer a nearby banquet room as an ad hoc command center so they could quickly publish the news.
Some gallows humor emerged. “Are they bringing more Champagne?” one attendee said to a friend. But other guests were deeply upset. One woman’s hand shook as she spoke on the phone with a family member and wiped away tears.
Weijia Jiang, a CBS News correspondent who is president of the White House Correspondents’ Association, eventually retook the stage and, with some emotion in her voice, said the evening would continue, prompting loud applause. Eventually an announcement was made that the authorities preferred that the crowd depart.
By 10 p.m., the ballroom was emptying out. Hundreds of plates of half-eaten burrata lay abandoned as guests shuffled to the escalators, toward the chilly outdoor air of an unnerving and unexpected night.
Business
‘Michael’ moonwalks into a big box office debut
“Michael,” the Michael Jackson biopic from Lionsgate, had a massive opening weekend with a box office haul of $97 million in the U.S. and Canada.
The film, which stars Jackson’s nephew Jaafar Jackson as the late singer, beat studio expectations of a $65-million to $70-million debut. Globally, the movie brought in just over $217 million.
Critics’ reviews of the film, however, were largely negative. Many noted the plot sidesteps the child sexual abuse allegations against Jackson and said the film presents a more one-dimensional view of the singer.
The original cut of the movie did reportedly include a third act that discussed allegations from 1993, which Jackson denied. But it had to be scrapped due to stipulations in a settlement with one of the accusers, forcing filmmakers to craft a new ending.
“Michael” chronicles Jackson’s life through the rise of the Jackson 5 and his budding solo career before ending in 1988 while he’s on tour for his hit album “Bad.” The film stars Colman Domingo as the late singer’s father, Joe, and Nia Long as his mother, Katherine.
The film was produced by Graham King, who was behind the 2018 Freddie Mercury biopic, “Bohemian Rhapsody,” and directed by Antoine Fuqua of “The Equalizer” franchise and 2001’s “Training Day.”
The Jackson family was also heavily involved in the film, with several of Jackson’s siblings, as well as his son Prince, attending the U.S. premiere last week at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood.
“I hope my uncle Michael’s smiling from above,” Jaafar Jackson said in a brief onstage speech at the premiere. “I wanted to make sure I captured his essence.”
“The Super Mario Galaxy Movie” came in second at the box office with $21.2 million. “Project Hail Mary” rounded out the top three with $13.2 million.
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