What Strikes in Hollywood Tell Us About the US Economy

Author: Editors Desk Source: Bloomberg

November 1, 2023 at 07:04

The Hollywood Sign in Los Angeles, California, US on Monday, Sept. 25, 2023.Photographer: Eric Thayer/Bloomberg

What are the spillovers from more intense labor action?

This special episode of Odd Lots was recorded live at the Bloomberg Screentime festival earlier this month in Los Angeles, where the summer strikes by Hollywood writers and actors were a hot topic among panelists and guests. During the event, we spoke with Omair Sharif, the founder and president of Inflation Insights, on how prolonged work stoppages in the film and television industry have impacted the economy, both in California and across the country, and what the recent rise in labor actions means for the US overall. This transcript has been lightly edited for clarity.

Key insights from the pod:
Have this summer’s strikes shown up in the economic data? — 2:00
Are strikes inflationary? — 4:24
How much do actors actually make? — 5:54
How the BLS measures services — 11:45
What's happening with TV and movie shoots during the strike? — 15:10
The long-term trends for unions and strikes — 18:19
Workers are getting raises without strikes — 23:20
The economic impact of Taylor Swift — 31:53

Carmen Rodriguez (00:00):
Hello, Odd Lots listeners, producer Carmen here. This episode was recorded on October 12th at the Screentime Conference in California, and before the UAW reached a tentative agreement with Ford to end their strike. Thanks for listening.

Joe Weisenthal (00:24):
Hello and welcome to another episode of the Odd Lots podcast. I'm Joe Weisenthal.

Tracy Alloway (00:27):
And I'm Tracy Alloway.

Joe (00:28):
You are going to be listening to a special episode of the Odd Lots podcast that we recorded live at the Bloomberg Screentime conference in Los Angeles in early October.

Tracy (00:41):
That's right, Odd Lots Takes Hollywood. We are speaking to one of our favorites, Omair Sharif of Inflation Insights, and we are talking to him about the macro impact of some of the recent strikes we've seen this summer from the Screenwriter's Guild, from the Actors' Guild, as well as the United Auto Workers. Take a listen.

Joe (01:01):
Omair is one of our favorite economists that we speak to regularly on our podcast, where we typically cover markets, finance and economic stuff.