Stimulus & Bailout Watch Thread

[boutons_deux]

Small Businesses Counting on Loan Forgiveness Could Be Stuck With Debt

Business owners who took out loans under the Paycheck Protection Program thought converting them to grants would be easy. It’s not.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/06/b...ronavirus.html

[boutons_deux]

Community Clinics Are Suddenly on Life Support

How a safety net became “a house of cards” under the economics of a pandemic.

The bottom line? “We’re losing about $26,000 a day,” the doctor said.

Community clinics are under siege in America,

an unforeseen and ironic development arising from the COVID-19 pandemic.

Battered by reduced federal reimbursements as patients shy away from in-person visits,

often ill-equipped to quickly pivot to the telemedicine systems that have propped up the health-care giants for years,

clinics are furloughing some employees, laying off others and – far too often – closing locations altogether.

What lies in the balance is the primary health coverage of some 29 million Americans, most of them poor or lower-income earners who rely on the clinics for treatment and medicine.

With millions more finding themselves suddenly out of work and off company insurance plans,

the numbers of potential clinic patients could swell at precisely the time the system is undergoing a painful contraction.

https://capitalandmain.com/community-clinics-are-on-life-support-0504

[Blake]

Small Businesses Counting on Loan Forgiveness Could Be Stuck With Debt

Business owners who took out loans under the Paycheck Protection Program thought converting them to grants would be easy. It’s not.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/06/b...ronavirus.html

Yup. That really sucks

[boutons_deux]

[boutons_deux]

Trash's TV economist says "go slow"

Trump will not sign another stimulus bill unless it contains payroll tax cuts (dictated by vampire squid BigFinance that wants it hands on a privatized SS's $Ts)

And of course Pootin's Mitch will it up yet again, $100Bs to the wealthy, BigCorp, etc.

... all totally immune to the 25% unemployed, and 100Ks of small businesses failing, bankrupting

[boutons_deux]

Republicans threaten low-wage workers with fraud charges if they're too scared to go back to work

Republicans were really not happy about passing a $600 per week increase in unemployment benefits, and

Republican governors are moving to make it impossible for many people to collect it.

they force people back to unsafe jobs, and money is the weapon making it stick.

After Ohio encouraged employers to turn in workers who don’t want to go back to unsafe jobs, 600 employers turned in 1,200 workers.

(Ohio Democrats countered with a website for workers to report unsafe workplaces.)

Iowa similarly has a tip line for employers to call to report reluctant workers, and

Alabama’s government has warned people that collecting unemployment rather than going back to an unsafe job is fraud.

That message came through loud and clear to Arkansas massage therapist Tracy McFetridge, HuffPost reports, when her state’s secretary of commerce said that

anyone who could return to work but kept collecting unemployment was “a fraudulent claim for us, and we will be tracking that.”

Even if work means risking your life, Republicans are all for it—

at least if you’re someone who lives paycheck to paycheck and can’t get by without unemployment.

The rich, of course, can ride this thing out safe and secure.

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/202...tail=emaildkre

[Winehole23]

That both COVID-19 relief and austerity used get used as levers for labor disciplíně is unsurprising. The deference shown to employers by both workers and the state bodes ill for workers and the state.

Life is pretty cheap in the USA. If you're not eager to die to fulfill your essential duty (stocker, cashier, driver) you suck.

Next thing you know, we'll all be asked to tighten our belts to defray the national debt.

A certain rate of excess death is expected and tolerated in normal times, so in a certain sense, there's no principle at stake, we're just arguing how high a cost in human life is too high, in an inherently dangerous world.

It's weird seeing so many people dismiss and minimize what's clearly the deadliest pandemic in our lifetimes..

[boutons_deux]

43,000 Capitalists got an avg of $1.6M each = $70B

$70B / $600 = 115M weeks of $600/week for Labor

[boutons_deux]

COVID bailout cash goes to big players that have paid millions to settle allegations of wrongdoing

a Florida-based cancer center that agreed to pay a $100 million criminal penalty as part of a federal an rust investigation.

At least half of the top 10 recipients,

part of a group that received $20 billion in emergency funding from the Department of Health and Human Services,

have paid millions in recent years either in criminal penalties or to settle allegations related to improper billing and other practices

https://www.rawstory.com/2020/05/covid-bailout-cash-goes-to-big-players-that-have-paid-millions-to-settle-allegations-of-wrongdoing/

.. while doctors and nurses are having reduced pay, being laid off, clinics and hospitals closing

[boutons_deux]

Once Again, Congress Will Let Wall Street Pillage Main Street


Congress has responded in typical fashion by protecting its donors—the investor class—the only people in the country who didn’t need help.

By unrecorded voice vote, Congress passed the CARES Act, rushing $1.77 trillion in taxpayer money out the door to help their friends on Wall Street.

This bailout also saved the stock market and preserved the wealth of the 10 percent of Americans who own 85 percent of the stocks and bonds.

And to add insult to injury, the Federal Reserve is providing trillions more in free money to fortify the banks

so they can continue to collect 21 percent interest on your credit cards and buy up your distressed assets.

Ordinary Americans will receive a one-time payment of $1,200, if their creditors don’t scoop it up first, and

some unemployment relief, if their state’s system is functioning after the flood of new claims.

(In the last six weeks, more than 30 million workers have applied for unemployment compensation.)

Neither of the two corporate-backed parties that share power in the U.S. believe that any drastic measures are necessary to save Main Street.

the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP).

But the big banks who were put in charge of distributing the loans

gave much of the money to publicly traded chains that were allowed to claim small business status under a loophole written into the bill by their lobbyists.

Many economists are predicting a dangerous explosion in a matter of months

when rents and mortgages cannot be paid,

businesses fail, and

temporary layoffs turn into permanent job losses.

As was the case in the 2008 bailout, Congress has assured that none of the pain will be borne by its big donors.

the Fed is making funds available to their Wall Street cronies to buy up distressed Main Street assets at fire-sale prices.

Big companies will pick up small companies.

Blackstone will buy up more real estate.

The economy will be even more centralized.

States and municipalities are also facing rapidly approaching disasters.

only about 5 percent of the $3 trillion in total coronavirus relief has gone to help the 50 states.

I am not smart enough to know

how people can take back power without a violent revolution.

the economy appears to be headed off a cliff and the corporations have a tight grip on all the controls.

https://zcomm.org/znetarticle/once-again-congress-will-let-wall-street-pillage-main-street/

America is ed and un able

[boutons_deux]

I hear that some in Congress is "worried" that the bailout has cost too much

subtext: still no money for Main St and no more money For The People, but plenty of money for the oligarchy

[boutons_deux]

Unemployment insurance boost is tiny next to tax cuts for the rich,

this week in the war on workers

Republicans are doing their best to push people off of unemployment, with governors reopening states so that the most vulnerable workers are forced back into unsafe workplaces.

the extra $600 in unemployment insurance has been the best economic response to coronavirus—and it needs to be extended.

“Money spent on continuing crucial unemployment insurance provisions

will help avoid a prolonged period of high unemployment that will do far more serious and persistent damage to the economy,”

those 30 million workers would need to be provided an extra $1,400 per week for a year

to match the fiscal size of the 2017 tax cuts aimed at corporations and the rich.”

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/202...war-on-workers

[boutons_deux]

yep, we serious people knew it was INEVITABLE,

various Repugs saying America is broke now that the oligarchy has been paid off

===============

GOP Senator Who Voted for Trump Tax Cuts and Corporate Slush Fund Now Says

'Not Enough Money to Help Everybody' Harmed by Covid-19

"They took care of their billionaire buddies and Wall Street bankers.

Now they're trying to say there's 'not enough' left to help you and your family. It's a lie."



"There's not enough money to help everybody hurt when you shut down the government,"

"We have to reopen the economy,

we have to do it carefully,

we have to let people go back to work and earn a living," said Alexander.

"And I don't see us being able to appropriate much more money to help provide a counter to that."

Stephanie Kelton ... "can't believe we're hearing, 'We're out of money' in the early stages of a crisis. AGAIN." come on Steph, you knew ... it was coming

"The truth is, Congress can appropriate whatever it chooses," Kelton said.

"It literally cannot run out of money."

Larry Kudlow, President Donald Trump's top economic TEEVEE adviser, said Friday that

formal negotiations with Congress over the next Covid-19 stimulus package have been suspended—

even as other White House officials predict the U.S. unemployment rate could surpass 20% by next month.

Trump administration and Senate Republicans stall on additional relief, claiming to be concerned about the rising national debt,

House Democrats ...

an increase in federal nutrition assistance and Medicaid funding,

expanded unemployment benefits, and

another round of direct stimulus payments.

https://www.commondreams.org/news/20...ays-not-enough

Repugs "spent" $Ts in cutting taxes for the oligarchy aka BigDonor, in the 2017 Repug tax cut scam.

Whenever and wherever Repugs are in power, America is ed and un able.

[boutons_deux]

Republicans panicked

Trump is ‘in denial’

about the economic carnage that’s happening on his watch

Trump is trying to project confidence that the economy will quickly rebound in the second half of the year —

but even many Republicans are worried that he’s setting himself up for yet another failure.

Trump White House on Friday felt “relief” that

the economy shed a record 20 million jobs in just one month, victory laps all around!

as they feared the number was going to be even worse. counting stops in MID month

Trump is “in denial” about the true depth of the economic carnage that’s occurring under his watch.

“I remember working in the White House

in 2009 and feeling the world was ending when we lost roughly 700,000 job a month,” he says.

“Now, we lost 20 million jobs in one month. There is just no comparison.”

https://www.rawstory.com/2020/05/republicans-panicked-trump-is-in-denial-about-the-economic-carnage-thats-happening-on-his-watch/

[boutons_deux]

... Repugs saying "We're Broke" while ....

Steve Mnuchin:

Actual U.S. Unemployment Rate ‘Could Be’ Close To 25%

The rate of joblessness is estimated to have peaked at 24.9% during the worst of the Great Depression.

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/steve-mnuchin-unemployment-rate-25-percent_n_5eb7fdf0c5b69c4b317c3e14

[boutons_deux]

[boutons_deux]

Republican deficit pea s emerge to tell Americans medical care, food, shelter aren't priorities

Recognizing that corporations have gotten their bailout, the House intends to make this one all about the people:

"Direct payments,
unemployment insurance,
rental and mortgage help and
student loan assistance are essential,"

To which the Republican death cult screams "deficit" and "cut Social Security,"

Millions of newly homeless, starving people is apparently not bad for the economy,

but helping them is—if you're a Republican.

Cornyn, who tweeted the House is "is not officially coming back yet.

They are waiting for the release of a new coronavirus bill, which will cost trillions of dollars.

Neither this bill nor anything resembling it will ever become law

When the Senate was penning the CARES Act with its

$500 billion corporate bailout and

the $300+ billion "small business" loan program,

no Republican was asking "how do we pay for it."

That the economic and health crisis is getting worse by the day doesn't matter.

Republicans see no problem in waiting weeks and weeks before doing anything more.

Democrats have Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell on their side.

"This is not the time to act on those [debt] concerns."

We must 'Think Big' For The People now, because if we don't, it will cost more later.

Not acting is the most expensive course."

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2020/5/11/1944243/-Republican-deficit-pea s-emerge-to-tell-Americans-they-don-t-need-medical-care-food-shelter?detail=emaildkre

[CosmicCowboy]

I hope boutons is taking his blood pressure meds. The corona stress plus the second hand smoke in his moms singlewide is pushing him right over the edge.

[Winehole23]

Record drop in the CPI for April. It's deflation.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/artic...onthly-decline

[DMC]

That both COVID-19 relief and austerity used get used as levers for labor disciplíně is unsurprising. The deference shown to employers by both workers and the state bodes ill for workers and the state.

Life is pretty cheap in the USA. If you're not eager to die to fulfill your essential duty (stocker, cashier, driver) you suck.

Next thing you know, we'll all be asked to tighten our belts to defray the national debt.

A certain rate of excess death is expected and tolerated in normal times, so in a certain sense, there's no principle at stake, we're just arguing how high a cost in human life is too high, in an inherently dangerous world.

It's weird seeing so many people dismiss and minimize what's clearly the deadliest pandemic in our lifetimes..

Your conclusion doesn't jive with your premises.

[Winehole23]

Your conclusion doesn't jive with your premises.

Depends on one's perspective on indoctrination to the prevailing economic ideology.

Do you think excess death is merely the cost of doing business and not avoidable in any meaningful way?

[Winehole23]

Record drop in the CPI for April. It's deflation.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/artic...onthly-decline

If I were Herbert Hoover at a similar phase of the Great Depression, I would pivot to austerity now. Hope Congress doesn't get the jitters about spending.

[Winehole23]

CRE craters in April:

https://wolfstreet.com/2020/05/11/us...ces-collapsed/

[Winehole23]

Property prices in every CRE segment fell in April, even those that were red hot. And prices of mall properties got crushed.

The overall Commercial Property Price Index (CPPI) by Green Street Advisors had peaked in the period of November 2019 through January 2020. In February and March, it ticked down. In April it plunged 9.4% from March, the second largest percent-drop in the data going back to the 1990s. The largest drop was 10.9% in October 2008, following the Lehman bankruptcy

[Winehole23]

Sidebar: cashing in on pandemic insurance

In 2017, the Gies College of Business and the Grainger College of Engineering jointly took out a three-year contract with Lloyd’s of London to insure against a large drop in revenue from Chinese students resulting from specific events such as a trade war, a global pandemic, and visa restrictions.

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/unive...224016209.html