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About The Bulletin. (Bend, OR) 1963-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 13, 2022)
A11 B USINESS THE BULLETIN • THURSDAY, JANUARY 13, 2022 p DOW 36,290.32 +38.30 BRIEFING Delta extends deadline for travel vouchers Delta Air Lines said Wednesday it will ex- tend through 2023 the window for customers to rebook credits earned when they purchased but then canceled flights during the pandemic. Before the announce- ment, Delta flight credits were set to expire at the end of 2022. The new date will also apply to all tickets bought in 2022. Customers will be able to use the credits through- out 2024 if the trip is booked by Dec. 31, 2023, the airline said. The move was not immediately matched by American Airlines or United Airlines, where credits are set to expire March 31 and Dec. 31, re- spectively. Passengers are entitled to refunds under federal law if the airline cancels their flight. But if the pas- senger cancels, airlines generally provide only some form of credit or voucher, typically with a one-year expiration. Refunds have become a major source of airline consumer complaints to the U.S. Transportation Department. p bendbulletin.com/business p NASDAQ 15,188.39 +34.94 q S&P 500 4,726.35 +13.28 p 30-YR T-BOND 2.07% -.01 p CRUDE OIL $82.64 +1.42 GOLD $1,827.20 +8.60 p Associated Press SALEM — Oregon Gov. Kate Brown is proposing a $200 million legislative package to bolster the state’s workforce during the pandemic. Oregon Public Broadcasting reports the program, titled “Future Ready Or- egon,” aims to prioritize key popula- tions disproportionately impacted by COVID-19 and existing disparities. They include Oregonians of color, women, low-income individuals, rural communi- That means investing about $82 mil- lion in existing programs that have shown results in putting people to work. Those include programs admin- istered by the state’s nine regional work- force development boards, community colleges and career-specific apprentice- ship programs. The governor also wants to help es- pecially hard-hit Oregonians by spend- ing $95 million to solve problems that keep people out of the workforce. That ties, veterans and those who are incarcer- ated or formerly incarcerated. Lawmakers will consider the plan when the Legislature convenes Feb. 1. Three specific sectors would benefit from the program: Health care, manu- facturing and construction. Members of Brown’s Racial Justice Council, business groups and labor policy experts developed the program in late 2021 with the central theme of “meeting people where they are.” PRICES SOAR INFLATION CLIMBS TO LEVELS NOT SEEN SINCE THE 1980S. HERE’S WHY. Inflation hits highest level in decades Consumer price index, change from a year earlier 14% 36% Inflation to rent a car 12 19% 10 8 Wall Street capped a day of wobbly trading with modest gains for stocks Wednesday, as investors weighed the implications of the lat- est economic snapshot showing rising inflation. The S&P 500 rose 0.3% after veering between a loss of 0.1% and a gain of 0.8% over the course of the day. The Dow Jones Industrial Average eked out a 0.1% gain, while the Nasdaq composite rose 0.2%. Investors were focused on a report from the La- bor Department, which showed consumer prices jumped 7% last month. The sharp increase, which was in line with econo- mists’ forecasts, came a day after Fed Chair Je- rome Powell told Con- gress that the central bank stands ready to raise rates to fight inflation. “That’s the next (thing) that investors are look- ing at, trying to figure out what the Fed is really, really going to do and what they really can do,” said Tom Martin, senior portfolio manager with Globalt Investments. 6 Inflation in cost of bacon Re c e s s i o n Recession 7.0% 17% Inflation in cost of living and dining room furniture 4 2 11% 0 Inflation in cost of men’s coats and suits −2 1960 1970 1980 1990 Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics 2000 2010 2020 THE WASHINGTON POST BY PAUL WISEMAN • Associated Press W ASHINGTON — At first, it didn’t even register as a threat. Then it seemed like a temporary annoyance. Now, inflation is flashing red for the Federal Reserve’s policymakers — and delivering sticker shock to Americans at the used car lot, the su- permarket, the gas station, the rental office. On Wednesday, the Labor De- partment reported that consumer prices jumped 7% in December compared with 12 months earlier — the hottest year-over-year infla- tion since June 1982. Excluding vol- atile energy and food prices, what is called “core” inflation rose 5.5% over the past year, the fastest such pace since 1991. Bacon prices are up nearly 19% from a year ago, men’s coats and suits nearly 11%, living and din- ing room furniture more than 17%. Renting a car will cost you 36% more, on average, than it did in De- cember 2020. “Prices are increasing broadly throughout the economy, and the Federal Reserve has been caught off- guard by the extent of inflation,’’ said Gus Faucher, chief economist at PNC Financial. See Inflation / A12 Economy grew slowly at year-end —Bulletin wire reports p EURO $1.1449 +.0082 Brown proposes $200M workforce plan Stocks gain after inflation report The Federal Reserve said Wednesday that the economy was growing at a modest pace at the end of 2021 but was still be- ing held back by ongoing supply-chain disruptions and labor shortages. In its latest survey of business conditions around the country, the Fed said its 12 regional banks found that the economy was continuing to grow. But many re- gions reported a sudden pullback in spending on leisure travel, hotels and restaurants because of the rapid spread of the omicron variant of the coronavirus. “Although optimism remained high gener- ally, several districts cited reports from businesses that expectations for growth over the next several months cooled somewhat during the last few weeks” of 2021, a pe- riod when COVID cases were rising sharply. SILVER $23.20 +.39 Nam Y. Huh/AP file Cars sit on the lot of a dealership in Schaumburg, Illinois, on Dec. 16. Prices for cars jumped in December Marta Lavandier/AP file Beef cuts like these displayed at a Pub- lix Supermarket on Oct. 20 in Miami have become more expensive. Gerry Broome/AP file A rental sign is displayed along Me- bane, North Carolina, on Feb. 10. Rent has been rising, along with other prices. includes covering the cost of tuition and fees for school and training programs, transportation, housing, food and child care costs. The $12.5 million remaining would help launch initiatives to support those engaged in the program by helping them navigate the benefits available to them and connecting the business com- munity to consortiums set up for each of the three sectors involved. See Workforce / A12 Ninkasi Brewing unveils canned cocktails BY ANDRE MEUNIER The Oregonian Ninkasi Brewing of Eugene and Portland mixologist Jef- frey Morgenthaler have teamed up on a line of canned cocktails being released throughout Or- egon and the West. Ninkasi co-founders Nikos Ridge and Jamie Floyd tapped Morgenthaler, known in Port- land for creating the bar pro- grams at the now-closed Clyde Common restaurant and Pepe Le Moko bar, to create the cocktails. Floyd and Morgenthaler, in an interview a day ahead of the cocktails’ official release, said the venture is the latest inno- vation by Ninkasi, which sold more beer in Oregon in 2020 than any craft brewery. “It was an absurd idea to start a brewery making IPA when we did,” Floyd said of Ninkasi launching Total Dom- ination IPA as its flagship beer when the brewery opened in 2006. The brewery also pur- chased its own canning line. “That’s the first time it struck a nerve in me, because once we had beer in cans, I thought cock- tails in a can would be smart, too,” Floyd said. “Nikos and I, our first thought was that we’d want to do that with Jeffrey.” Morgenthaler’s relationship with Ninkasi dates back to the brewery’s earliest days, when he was a web designer and bartender in Eugene. He de- signed one of Ninkasi’s earliest websites in 2007, a year be- fore he moved to Portland and started at Clyde Common. Morgenthaler is known for his cocktail advice blog and the 2014 recipe book it inspired, “The Bar Book.” He hopes to open a cocktail bar of his own in the first half of 2022. “My whole thing as evi- denced by sharing on my blog for the last 20 years is getting more delicious cocktails in the hands of more people,” Mor- genthaler said. “It’s really the thing that drives everything that I’ve done forever. I can only get so many drinks in hands working behind the bar.” See Ninkasi / A12 Fact checkers: YouTube lets its platform be ‘weaponized’ Associated Press More than 80 fact checking organiza- tions are calling on YouTube to address what they say is rampant misinforma- tion on the platform. In a letter to CEO Susan Wojcicki published Wednesday, the groups say the Google-owned video platform is “one of the major conduits of online disinformation and misinformation worldwide.” YouTube’s efforts to address the prob- lem, they say, are proving insufficient. “What we do not see is much effort by YouTube to implement policies that address the problem,” the letter says. “On the contrary, YouTube is allowing its platform to be weaponized by un- scrupulous actors to manipulate and ex- ploit others, and to organize and fund- raise themselves.” The problem, these groups said, is es- pecially rampant in non-English speak- ing countries and the global south. The fact checkers are all members of the International Fact Checking Net- work and include Rappler in the Philip- pines, Africa Check, Science Feedback in France and dozens of other groups. They lambasted YouTube, saying it frames discussions about disinforma- tion as a “false dichotomy” of deleting or not deleting content. Displaying fact-checked information is more effective than deleting content, the fact checkers wrote. They propose that YouTube focuses on providing context and use debunk statements that are “clearly superim- posed” on videos. They also called for YouTube to act against repeat offend- ers and beef up efforts against mis- information in languages other than English. In a statement, YouTube spokesper- son Elena Hernandez said the company has “invested heavily in policies and products in all countries we operate to connect people to authoritative con- tent, reduce the spread of borderline misinformation, and remove violative videos.” She called fact checking “a crucial tool to help viewers make their own in- formed decisions,” but added that it is “one piece of a much larger puzzle to address the spread of misinformation.”
