A11
B USINESS
THE BULLETIN • THURSDAY, OCTOBER 21, 2021
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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
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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
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CRUDE OIL
$83.87 +.91
GOLD
$1,784.10 +14.40
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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