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About The Bulletin. (Bend, OR) 1963-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 21, 2021)
A11 B USINESS THE BULLETIN • THURSDAY, OCTOBER 21, 2021 p DOW 35,609.34 +152.03 BRIEFING Bitcoin tops $66,000, a record Bitcoin stormed above $66,000 for the first time on Wednesday, riding a wave of excitement about how the financial establishment is increas- ingly accepting the digital currency’s rise. One Bitcoin was valued at $66,096, as of 1:15 p.m. Pacific time, after ear- lier climbing as high as $66,974.77. The digital cur- rency has roared back af- ter sinking below $30,000 during the summer to top its prior record set in April. That previous all-time high was nearly $64,889, ac- cording to CoinDesk. The surge has come as more businesses, profes- sional investors and even the government of El Sal- vador buy into Bitcoin, fur- ther broadening its base. On Tuesday, the first exchange-traded fund linked to Bitcoin found huge interest from inves- tors. Shares of the Pro- Shares Bitcoin Strategy ETF changed hands 24.1 million times. It was even busier on Wednesday, with trading volume top- ping 29.4 million. q NASDAQ 15,121.68 -7.41 bendbulletin.com/business p Financial startup raises $60M more Vancouver, Washington, company Embed Financial Technology said Tuesday it has raised an additional $60 million on top of $20 million in funding it an- nounced in the spring. The startup’s $80 mil- lion funding is split evenly between investment and debt, according to CEO Michael Giles. He said the company plans to launch before year’s end. Giles was formerly CEO of Square subsidi- ary Cash App Investing. The Vancouver company announced earlier this month that new chief technology officer Lars Beal had joined Embed from Cash App, which fa- cilitates the purchase of partial shares in publicly traded companies. Embed’s $80 million in initial funding is a huge sum by the Portland area’s modest standards, but the company doesn’t have a large footprint here. Giles said it employs 25 alto- gether, six in the metro area. Embed has its head- quarters on Main Street in downtown Vancouver, the city where Giles lives. — Bulletin wire reports p 30-YR T-BOND 2.11% +.03 p p CRUDE OIL $83.87 +.91 GOLD $1,784.10 +14.40 p SILVER $24.42 +.56 p EURO $1.1656 +.0016 Oregon landlords get millions in back rent, but many await aid BY PETER WONG Oregon Capital Bureau Despite millions of dollars paid out by a federal deadline of Sept. 30, thousands of Oregonians continue to await emergency rental assistance as their applications slip past state and local grace periods intended to avert evictions. The backlog remains greatest in the three Portland metro area counties, where 42.1% of completed applications have been paid through Monday, compared with 54.5% statewide. Still, the Oregon Department of Hous- ing and Community Services and 18 com- munity action agencies paid out a total of $133 million by a Sept. 30 deadline set by the U.S. Treasury for states to commit at least 65% of their initial shares of rental assistance. Oregon’s initial share was $204 million, and Oregon is in line for more money that will be reallocated from other states failing to spend their full amounts. According to the state agency’s dash- board, 20,968 of 38,474 completed ap- plications for rent and utility assistance have been “paid and obligated” statewide as of Monday — the figure includes pay- ments approved by agencies but not yet redeemed by landlords — for a total of $165.6 million. Requests total $300.8 mil- lion. See Landlords / A13 AP FEDERAL MANDATE Shot-or-test rule leaves businesses awaiting fine print BY ZEKE MILLER AND DAVID KOENIG Associated Press Paint makers have the Fed finds economy facing headwinds The Federal Reserve reports that the economy faced a number of head- winds at the start of this month, ranging from sup- ply-chain disruptions and labor shortages to un- certainty about the delta variant of COVID. In its latest survey of business conditions around the nation, the Fed said Wednesday that a majority of its 12 regions viewed consumer spend- ing, the main driving force for the economy, as re- maining positive despite the various speed bumps. The report noted wide differences in per- formance. It noted that auto sales suffered due to problems obtaining critical semiconductor components. Manufac- turing was growing either moderately or robustly depending on which Fed district was reporting. “Outlook for near-term economic activity re- mained positive, overall, but some districts noted increased uncertainty and more cautious optimism than in previous months,” the Fed said in the report. S&P 500 4,536.19 +16.56 blues (or, rather, they don’t) 123RF BY TARA PATEL Bloomberg D utch paint-maker Akzo Nobel NV is running out of ingredients to make some shades of blue, the latest fallout from the global sup- ply-chain disruptions that are spreading across manufacturers. “There is one basic color tint that is extremely difficult to get,” Chief Execu- tive Officer Thierry Vanlancker said in an interview Wednesday after publishing third-quarter earnings. “It’s creating com- plete chaos.” Akzo Nobel is also having trouble sourc- ing the tinplate used to make metal cans, forcing the Amsterdam-based company to ship empty pots from one country to an- other for filling. It also called a force ma- jeure — a departure from contract terms because of an uncontrollable event — on deliveries of some exterior wall paints be- cause an additive needed to make them waterproof is unavailable. The supply-chain snarls that have sown disarray across industries are raising prices and creating shortages of some basic household products. Taylor Weidman/Bloomberg Screen printing fabric ink is prepared at a garment factory in Kolkata, India. Supply-chain problems have led a Dutch paint-maker to warn that it cannot get ingredients to make some shades of blue- See Blue / A13 WASHINGTON — More than six weeks after promising a new vaccina- tion-or-testing rule cover- ing the millions of Ameri- cans at companies with 100 or more workers, President Joe Biden’s most aggres- sive move yet to combat the COVID-19 pandemic is al- most ready to see the light of day. An obscure White House office is expected to give the green light any day to the rule’s fine print detailing how and when companies will have to require their employees to be vaccinated or undergo weekly testing. The full enforcement deadline, which could carry penalties of about $14,000 per violation, may not take effect until after the new year. That’s why Biden and his aides have for weeks en- couraged businesses to act as though the rule was al- ready in effect and start im- posing vaccination require- ments. The regulation, to be pub- lished in the Federal Regis- ter, was drafted by the Occu- pational Safety and Health Administration under emer- gency authorities to protect worker safety and will cover an estimated 80 million U.S. workers. The White House sees it as a potent tool to winnow down the ranks of roughly 65 million Ameri- cans who have thus far re- fused to get a shot. Unlike health care pro- viders or federal employees, who may not have a testing alternative to vaccination, private sector workers won’t necessarily face termination if they don’t get vaccinated. But some businesses may choose to impose their own more stringent vaccination mandate, and it’s possible that businesses may be al- lowed to pass on the cost of weekly COVID-19 testing to their unvaccinated em- ployees. White House officials de- clined to discuss when the rule will be published or go into details on when busi- nesses will have to comply. For the last week, fed- eral officials have hosted more than two dozen listen- ing sessions with industry groups, businesses and ad- vocacy organizations. See Vaccines / A13 Workers fed up with nights, weekends seek flexible schedules BY ANNE D’INNOCENZIO Associated Press After struggling to hire workers for its outlet store in Dallas, Balsam Hill fi- nally opened on Sept. 1. But the very next day, the online pur- veyor of high-end artificial holiday trees was forced to close after four of its five workers quit. The main gripe for three of them? Working on weekends. So they found jobs elsewhere with better hours. Balsam Hill reopened weeks later with nine workers, hiking the hourly pay by $3 to $18 per hour. But more importantly, it changed its approach: Instead of only focusing on the needs of the business, it’s now closely work- ing with each employee to tailor their schedules based on when they want to work. “We’re working against people who have the choice of wherever they want to work,” said Kendra Gould, senior retail strategist at Balsam Hill. “Now, it’s more about what do you need as an employee and how can we make you happy?” Companies are confronting de- mands by hourly workers on terms that often used to be nonnegotiable: scheduling. Taking a page from their white-collar peers who are restruc- turing their workdays to accommo- date their lifestyles, hourly workers are similarly seeking flexibility in how — and when — they do their jobs. That means pushing back on weekend, late night or holiday shifts. See Workers / A13
