Iranians protest over economic pain

0:02Good morning from the Financial Times. Today is Friday, January 9th. And this is your FT News Briefing. It looks like the deal frenzy of 2025 is extending to 2026. And Iran is experiencing its biggest protest in years over its economy. It's hard to imagine how the poorest segments of the society are managing at all. I just cannot imagine how they managed to survive. Plus, we'll take a look at whether there's a right way for CEOs to say goodbye. I'm Mark Filippino, and here's the news you need to start your day.

0:42Glenn Corr says that it's restarted preliminary merger talks with Rio Tinto to create the world's largest mining company. It would have an enterprise value of more than$260 billion. The discussions come as demand for copper is growing. The material is used heavily in the booming construction of AI data centers. But many of the world's major mines are becoming less productive as they age. Because of that, mining companies are investing more to find new resources. Glencore has recently rebranded itself as a copper growth company. Rio Tinto declined to comment.

1:23Living standards in Iran have fallen to historic lows, and frustration with the situation has erupted onto the streets. The protests, now in their second week, are the biggest in several years. I'm joined by Najmeh Buzorgmer in Tehran to talk about this. Hi, Najmeh. Hi, hello. So how do these protests compare to previous unrest in Iran? These protests were initially driven by economic hardships that traders have been feeling in Iran's electronics markets, particularly those who have been dealing with mobile phones and computers. whose businesses have been hard hit by the sharp fall in the parity rate of the national currency against the U.S.

2:09dollar. The unrest then quickly spread to poorer neighborhoods and in major cities and then to provincial cities and towns. Now, you touched a little bit on the economic situation driving these protests. Tell me a little more about how bad it is. these protests are mainly as i said a reaction to the collapse of the real which has lost around 40 percent of its value over the past six months since the june war with israel since then iran has been stuck in a state of what many people call no war no peace and this situation has fueled economic stagnation and inflation which is 42 but food inflation is much worse it's about a 72 percent And bread inflation has been 113%.

2:57It's massive for poor families. We are talking about people who are basically going hungry. Now, Najme, has the government done anything to address the economic concerns that we're talking about? The government of Masoud Pazeshgian has replaced the central bank governor. And Denver's major move was to end subsidies for importers of basic commodities. They argue that these subsidies were fueling large-scale corruption and even fueling inflation without giving cheap food to people. Instead, the government has promised direct support to the public. And it has started giving a monthly payment of about$7 per person.

3:42Many Iranians are already unhappy with this plan, saying it's too little too late, which is the reason it has had no major impact on the protests. Now, given that the economic intervention hasn't calmed things down, how has the government reacted to the protests? Iran's leaders have acknowledged that the economic situation is dire and that people have every right to be angry. So far no senior official has condemned the protests. But authorities draw a sharp distinction between what they call legitimate economic protests and what they describe as rioting. This includes acts of violence, the use of weapons or attacks on state buildings or killings of security forces.

4:32Iran's leaders have vowed to show no tolerance for that kind of violence. And domestic media so far say at least 17 people have been killed. Some of them are security forces. But it's very difficult to verify the true scale of the casualties. Najme, you've covered a lot of Iran's protests over the years. What makes this one different? What makes these protests different from previous anti-regime protests is the foreign factor. and whether President Donald Trump has any intention to intervene directly in Iran's domestic affairs. Previously, Iranian protesters called on U.S. presidents to intervene and come to their help.

5:18This time, to everyone's surprise, President Trump suddenly said he was ready to come and rescue Iranian protesters should the Islamic Republic use a heavy-handed crackdown. This obviously has raised eyebrows in Iran. Politicians wonder what that means. But what we know is that the convergence of domestic pressure with heightened foreign tensions makes these protests very different from previous protests. That's the FT's Najmeh Buzorgmir in Tehran. Thanks so much, Najmeh. Sure, thank you.

6:03U.S. President Donald Trump's tariff policy got a win yesterday. Government data showed that in October, America's trade deficit narrowed to its lowest level since 2009. Trump has made reducing the country's trade deficit a cornerstone of his economic policy. The drop in imports was mostly fueled by pharmaceutical products. Trump threatened tariffs on that sector throughout last year, which prompted companies to boost their imports of those goods. The lower-than-expected trade deficit for October is forecasted to be a tailwind for fourth-quarter growth figures. The Atlanta branch of the Federal Reserve estimated yesterday that real GDP growth for that period will be 5.4%.

6:42That would be up from 4.3 % in the previous quarter.

6:53Well, we have made it to the end of the first official week back from holiday break, and it has been a really busy one. But before we get to the weekend, I want to bring in our Monday host, Victoria Craig, to help us end on a subject that I really like talking about. Hey, Victoria. Hey, Mark. Yeah, a big exhale. Yeah, a few exhales. Yeah. Victoria, for so many people, a new year means a fresh start. And that's true for so many companies, too. Several of them are kicking off 2026 with new CEOs. Yeah, lots of companies that our listeners probably know, Spotify, GlaxoSmithKline, Diageo, all of them have new leadership this year.

7:28Not to mention Berkshire Hathaway, who for the first time in decades will operate without the famous Warren Buffett at the helm. Yeah, the end of an era, right? Never thought we'd see the day. But this change at the top of Berkshire and other companies kind of begs the obvious question, is there a right way for leaders to exit a company? That's an age-old question our colleague Anjali Reval, the FT's management editor, has been writing about. And she sat down with me to talk about what she's found. And the first question I had was, is it actually possible to edge out a CEO or a board member painlessly?

8:05So depending on who you talk to, and particularly if you speak to headhunters or chairs that have been around for a long time, they always say that you should start the conversation early and keep on having the conversation around succession and put it in the context of broader leadership and talent sort of planning to make sure the right skills are in the room. So it should never be a hot potato topic. However, it's probably CEOs who have big egos or they're working 24-7 for their companies. And it's very hard to distance yourself and be a little bit removed from the situation when you're talking about your own departure.

8:49So it's unbelievably tricky to navigate. And I'm sure along with big egos, there's also the issue of big perks that come with those big jobs. And as you write, even the best laid plans for how to navigate this succession planning can go wrong. I once had a source who used to work for a CEO and they said the reason why this guy wants to keep hanging around is because he absolutely loves his private jet access and loves his assistance and just loves being in all the rooms that you get invited into once you do become the CEO of a major listed company. And so there are all these trappings once you get to the top of your profession that you don't want to let go of.

9:31Ultimately, it seems like all of this comes down to just how humans can navigate awkward and difficult situations. This isn't only a corporate problem that needs to be solved in many of these cases. Are there some companies that are getting succession planning right? Yeah, there's lots of companies in recent years that are almost case studies. Shell for example had a very well orchestrated handover from Ben Van Burden to Weil Sawan. Ben was there for almost a decade and Weil was somebody that had been groomed effectively had been put through his paces through different divisional roles and then got the top job.

10:13With a 10-year period, let's say, you can have a sense of momentum, right? You can groom certain candidates. You can have two or three internal successes lined up. And so what ends up happening is that you just have a natural progression. And that's what headhunters at least say is the right way to do things. But look, companies are run by people. People have very human tendencies. So CEOs overstay or they're performing really well and actually no one wants them to go. All right. So I guess the big takeaway here is do not leave planning too late. I think that's a lesson all of us can take forward into 2026.

10:54Anjali Rival is the FT's management editor. Anjali, thanks so much for chatting about this. Thank you.

11:05Well, that was great. And, you know, speaking of planning, Victoria is still with me. and you're already thinking about what our listeners are going to be hearing on Monday's show. So tell me, what are you working on? Yeah, the new year doesn't mean more rest. That's for sure. Corporate earnings season is going to kick into high gear next week. And we start with the banks. So we've got J.P. Morgan out on Tuesday, Wells Fargo, Bank of America, and Citi out on Wednesday. And then Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs round it all out on Thursday. So analysts are expecting a fourth quarter boost to those bank earnings.

11:37that's likely to be helped by a jump in investment banking fees. And that is thanks to a flurry of mergers and acquisitions that I'm sure we all remember last year. And like I said at the beginning of the show, that M &A boom is expected to come into full force again this year, like with Glencore and Rio Tinto. Yeah, plenty for us to dive into next week. Be sure, Mark, that you've got lots of coffee in the morning. Yeah, you know it. Victoria, thank you so much. Always a pleasure. Thanks, Mark. You can read more on all these stories for free when you click the links in our show notes. This has been your daily FT News Briefing.

12:10Check back next week for the latest business news. The FT News Briefing was produced this week by Julia Webster, Sonia Hudson, Fiona Simon, and Victoria Craig. I'm your host and editor, Mark Filippino. Our show is mixed by Alex Higgins and Kelly Gary. We had help this week from Emily Goldberg, Michael Lello, and Gavin Kallman. Our acting co-head of audio is Topher Forges, and our theme song is by Metaphor Music.

12:38I'm Adam Taylor put his name on him I 끝 to stick with me It hasn't happened yet I'll never break it into the new year I appeared here And I went back and gold