Economy

His decision means that there are job openings for the top positions at three of the four nonprofits with Broadway houses, portending potentially significant change, and uncertainty, in a key sector of the theater industry that has had almost no leadership turnover for decades. Nonprofit theaters, which pay lower artist wages than commercial productions and are funded by philanthropy as well as box office sales, have become an important part of the Broadway ecosystem; Lincoln Center Theater has been able to stage musicals on a larger scale than many commercial producers can afford.On Wednesday, Carole Rothman, the president and artistic director of Second Stage Theater, said that after 45 years she would be leaving that institution, which she co-founded; Second Stage operates the Helen Hay...

The United Automobile Workers strike against the Michigan automakers would seem to be nothing but good news for Tesla, the electric vehicle maker that has upended the industry and stolen customers from Ford Motor, General Motors and Stellantis, which owns Jeep and Ram.Unencumbered by an activist union, Tesla can take advantage of the work stoppages to add to its substantial lead in battery technology and software. As the three established automakers face increases in labor costs and struggle to master electric vehicles, Tesla can twist the knife by lowering car prices because it is much more profitable than most automakers.But the U.A.W.’s determination to secure a big victory for its members, amid a nationwide resurgence in union activism, harbors risks for Tesla and Elon Musk, its chief ...

Rupert Murdoch, the 92-year-old media tycoon who announced his retirement on Thursday, spent the past 70 years building a global media empire that gave him influence in journalism, politics and pop culture.Over dozens of acquisitions, Mr. Murdoch created a media conglomerate known for the rise of the modern tabloid and conservative commentary. His tenure has not been without scandal: One of his properties in Britain folded in 2011 after a phone-hacking inquiry, and he admitted this year that Fox News had spread falsehoods about the 2020 U.S. presidential election.Here’s how Mr. Murdoch built his empire:1950sThe Australian-born mogul ventured into media in 1952 when he inherited his family’s business after the death of his father, Keith Murdoch. A 21-year-old Oxford student, he inherited Th...

Negotiations between each of the three large U.S. automakers and the United Auto Workers union remain far from being resolved, but one of the companies — Ford Motor — has averted a second strike in Canada.Late on Tuesday, the company reached a tentative labor agreement with Unifor, Canada’s main auto union. The deal was announced minutes before an 11:59 p.m. deadline set by the union for a strike by its 5,600 members at Ford.Neither side disclosed the terms of the agreement, but Unifor said the company had made a “substantive offer.”“We believe that this agreement will solidify the foundations on which we will continue to bargain gains for generations of autoworkers in Canada,” Unifor’s national president, Lana Payne, said in a statement.Unifor’s talks with Ford, General Motors and Stellan...

Isolated from the world and pulled closer into Beijing’s orbit over the past three years, Hong Kong is finding that its fortunes are tied more than ever to China.The city’s stock market, which is seen as a proxy for China’s economy, is among the world’s worst performing this year. The rivers of money that flowed into companies, minting new wealth, have slowed to a trickle.And there is the gnawing feeling that the once-vibrant international city that staked its reputation on being separate from China has itself become more like the rest of China.To counter this sentiment, officials are making a big push for investors overseas, with trips to Europe and the United States. Paul Chan, the city’s finance chief, is visiting Paris and London this week and will then travel to Berlin and Frankfurt b...

The Biden administration on Wednesday announced that it was awarding $238 million through the Defense Department to set up eight hubs around the United States for promoting innovation in the semiconductor industry.The funds are one of the earliest releases of the nearly $53 billion in grants and subsidies that Congress and the Biden administration have approved to build up the domestic semiconductor industry, which U.S. officials say has been left vulnerable by decades of offshoring.The Biden administration has a variety of funding programs in the works to encourage chip research institutions and manufacturers to set up operations in the United States. Most of these programs are run through the Commerce Department, and many will begin handing out money this fall.While U.S. companies still ...

A new market disruption is coming to grocery store shelves. In the coming weeks, just as flu season gets underway, shoppers could be peering into depleted spaces where their Clorox cleaning supplies once stood.This time, the culprit is not the pandemic, but a cyberattack.In a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Monday, the Clorox Company said it had identified unauthorized activity on some of its information technology systems and it was forced to process orders manually. The slower rate of operations was affecting the availability of its products, it said.“The cybersecurity attack damaged portions of the company’s IT infrastructure, which caused wide-scale disruption of Clorox’s operations,” it said. The company said it discovered the breach on Aug. 11, and disclosed it ...