9
   

Dispatches from the COVID-19 Financial Front

 
 
nononono
 
  -2  
Reply Wed 15 Apr, 2020 03:57 pm
@jespah,
Hi Jespa!

Did you miss me cupcake?

Very Happy
0 Replies
 
jespah
 
  1  
Reply Mon 27 Apr, 2020 06:50 am
So. Many. Money. Issues. With. SBA PPP.

That's the Paycheck Protection Program, which ran out of $$ in IIRC less than 2 weeks. Another $349 B has been approved. Let's see how long it lasts.

In the meantime, here's what sketchy/no oversight hath wrought:
https://www.cnbc.com/2020/04/24/billionaires-company-got-4-million-from-coronavirus-sba-fund.html
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2020/04/23/small-business-loans-corporations-face-higher-bar-ppp-program/3012502001/
https://www.journalofaccountancy.com/news/2020/apr/sba-warns-larger-companies-may-not-qualify-for-coronavirus-ppp-loans.html
https://www.texastribune.org/2020/04/23/texas-coronavirus-sba-ppp-small-businesses/
https://www.npr.org/2020/04/25/844802957/black-pastors-say-they-have-trouble-accessing-sba-loan-program

There are tons more out there of course.

Also, on the medical front, given that it's now known that CV19 can cause strokes in healthy younger adults, we may see a spike in the disabled population. See: https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/929345 (there are several more such sources online)

For a timeline of state reopenings, see: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/us/states-reopen-map-coronavirus.html
Sturgis
 
  1  
Reply Mon 27 Apr, 2020 01:25 pm
@jespah,
Oversight? HA!
It was clear from the start that the wealthier businesses would be at the front of the line for governmental handouts. And they'd get them, and faster than a smaller concern would. They ( larger companies) have teams of lawyers on hand so as to find any loopholes or ways to speed up the process.


Meanwhile, in other useless lunacy, New York Senior Senator, Chuck Schumer is not as interested in getting money to those in need. No, he is busy pushing his "No PR Act" to make sure the names Trump and Pence don't appear on stimulus checks.

Seems to me, the money is more important than who has their friggin name on the check!
jespah
 
  1  
Reply Mon 27 Apr, 2020 03:37 pm
@Sturgis,
Ayup. We are getting ... something ... in the mail today from (I think) the Treasury Dept. We already got direct deposit so who the hell knows what this is.

The Boston Globe has a Slack group for small businesses and a lot of people complained their applications for PPP were sat on while larger companies' sailed through, with concierge treatment.

And the hits just keep coming - Forbes lists the number of retailers on bankruptcy watch has, of course, risen: https://www.forbes.com/sites/pamdanziger/2020/04/03/retail-companies-on-death-watch-is-growing-fast-as-covid-19-puts-non-essential-retailers-on-life-support/#5f02205825ea
roger
 
  2  
Reply Mon 27 Apr, 2020 05:00 pm
@jespah,
I'm not going to root around the trash to give you a preview, but the one I got essentially said nothing. At the bottom, it said Donald Trump (he didn't bother to sign it)
0 Replies
 
jespah
 
  2  
Reply Mon 27 Apr, 2020 05:08 pm
More glitches with the PPP program (with the time off, ya'd have thought they might, you know, hire a programmer?) -
https://www.wsj.com/articles/small-business-loan-program-resumes-with-reports-of-delays-11588013225
The LA Lakers got a loan (they're returning it). About a half a billion went to large corporations: https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2020/04/27/ppp-small-business-loans/

Forgot if I mentioned this - that private information was exposed -
https://www.inc.com/don-reisinger/sba-disaster-loan-application-glitch-exposed-8000-businesses.html

Yeah, this program is one hot mess.

Some perspective - the program did about 14 years worth of loans in 14 days last time around - https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/todaysdebate/2020/04/20/sba-ppp-14-years-worth-loans-14-days-editorials-debates/5167961002/

Given that there is obviously pent-up demand, and even more people are unemployed, I wonder how long this chunk of change will last. Per the WaPo article above, Juleanna Glover, a D.C.-based corporate public affairs adviser tracking the program said, “Once the application portal reopens, there will be an immediate flood of tens of thousands of applicants. Maybe millions. I’d be surprised if this next tranche lasts even 72 hours.”

Yikes.
0 Replies
 
Setanta
 
  2  
Reply Mon 27 Apr, 2020 05:32 pm
Tip of the hat, and a sincere thank you, Jessalonika, for an amazing, careful and informative effort.
jespah
 
  1  
Reply Tue 28 Apr, 2020 05:44 am
@Setanta,
Oh, thank you
0 Replies
 
jespah
 
  2  
Reply Tue 28 Apr, 2020 12:46 pm
Really interesting toy:
https://analytics-tools.shinyapps.io/covid19simulator/
Sturgis
 
  1  
Reply Tue 28 Apr, 2020 01:27 pm
@jespah,
Nice.
Interesting.

...scary!
0 Replies
 
tsarstepan
 
  1  
Reply Tue 28 Apr, 2020 07:16 pm
https://imgur.com/Oy5zOTW.jpg
Those aren't per-theater averages but the worldwide box office weekend grosses for the few studios who are actually reporting their respective theatrical ticket sales.
0 Replies
 
jespah
 
  1  
Reply Sat 16 May, 2020 08:12 am
Whoa, tsar.

Some of the many, many business casualties of COVID-19 (more to come, no doubt):
https://www.bizjournals.com/sanjose/news/2020/04/07/covid-19-business-casualties-mountain-view-s.html
https://www.realclearpublicaffairs.com/articles/2020/04/29/startups_will_be_some_of_covid-19s_hidden_casualties_490341.html
https://www.scmp.com/economy/global-economy/article/3081495/coronavirus-can-asias-small-businesses-survive-covid-19

Big retailers out:
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/15/business/jc-penney-bankruptcy-coronavirus.html
https://wwd.com/business-news/financial/neiman-marcus-bankruptcy-chapter-11-coronavirus-ares-geoffroy-van-raemdonck-1203630116/
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/03/business/j-crew-bankruptcy-coronavirus.html

Extended lockdowns have their own issues (although I suspect a lot of those would be alleviated with more personal $ and making it easier/possible for more people to work from home): https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/health-coronavirus-usa-cost/
0 Replies
 
Linkat
 
  1  
Reply Thu 21 May, 2020 07:41 am
Curious as to who/how you can get unemployment in the current environment.

My brother just told me that he has difficulty getting an uber or similar. It appears that many are now collecting unemployment rather than driving. I don't blame them as I would only imagine that it would open them up to getting sick. Puts people that work in the city and need to get to hospitals to work very difficult. These are people that probably should not take public transportation as working in hospitals opens them up both ways.

livinglava
 
  -4  
Reply Thu 21 May, 2020 08:33 am
@Linkat,
Linkat wrote:

Curious as to who/how you can get unemployment in the current environment.

My brother just told me that he has difficulty getting an uber or similar. It appears that many are now collecting unemployment rather than driving. I don't blame them as I would only imagine that it would open them up to getting sick. Puts people that work in the city and need to get to hospitals to work very difficult. These are people that probably should not take public transportation as working in hospitals opens them up both ways.

If you can't get unemployment, you may be able to establish credit lines for things you need, such as a store that lets you buy on credit. But be careful about the terms of credit because while some stores might just allow you to make purchases and postpone payment, other credit companies are trying to profit off your consumer behavior. So if you have to rely on credit because you're not getting income or unemployment, try to minimize your spending so that you won't end up overwhelmed with what you owe later on.

You have to survive, so you may not be able avoid debt completely, but the more effort you put into minimizing your debt build-up, the less stress you will go through later trying to get out of debt.
0 Replies
 
Sturgis
 
  1  
Reply Thu 21 May, 2020 02:26 pm
@Linkat,
Well, Uber cut some 3,700 jobs and is readying to zap 3,000 more.

But at the same time they are looking to buy Grub Hub.

Linkat
 
  1  
Reply Thu 21 May, 2020 03:53 pm
@Sturgis,
Sturgis wrote:

Well, Uber cut some 3,700 jobs and is readying to zap 3,000 more.

But at the same time they are looking to buy Grub Hub.



Weird my brother was trying to get an urber for just a 5 minute drive - the closest driver was about 5 times the time it would take to get to him so he walked back instead.

It is probably a combination of things - uber drivers are not getting as many people needing someone to drive them for the few that actually need it to be worth being on the road.

Although the food delivery service is going up. My daughter picked that up here and there since she of course lost her jobs she had on campus.
0 Replies
 
jespah
 
  2  
Reply Mon 8 Jun, 2020 06:25 am
... and the PPP (Paycheck Protection Program) cheats are out there: https://www.cnbc.com/2020/05/19/texas-man-charged-with-allegedly-seeking-5-million-sba-rescue-loans.html

There are a number of these stories online; this was the first one I found with a quick Google search.
0 Replies
 
jespah
 
  2  
Reply Wed 10 Jun, 2020 12:41 pm
Per the NY Times (and several other sources):
the New York Times wrote:
Federal Reserve officials indicated they expected the economic recovery from the pandemic-induced recession would be a slow one, with rates near zero for years....

... In their first economic projections this year, Fed officials indicated that they expect the unemployment rate to end 2020 at 9.3 percent and remain elevated for years, coming in at 5.5 percent in 2022. That would be well above the level they expect to prevail over the longer run in a healthy economy....

... The Fed is projecting a particularly sharp hit in 2020, with officials expecting output to contract by 6.5 percent at the end of this year compared to the final quarter of 2019, before rebounding by 5 percent in 2021.

The new forecasts predict a slower path back to economic strength than the Trump administration — and perhaps the stock market — seems to expect as the economy climbs out of a virus-spurred downturn. The Fed skipped its quarterly economic summary in March as the pandemic gripped the United States, sowing uncertainty as business activity came to a near standstill.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/10/business/economy/federal-reserve-economy-coronavirus.html

FYI when interest rates are very low -- as it looks like they will be for years -- one of your best bets is to pay down debt. If you still have a mortgage, it is a good time to refinance. And if you have credit card debt, pay it down!
0 Replies
 
jespah
 
  2  
Reply Sat 18 Jul, 2020 12:13 pm
A number of retailers are now requiring that customers wear masks. Enforcement generally is left to front-line workers, though.

If you were making minimum wage, would you confront someone who yelled at you about mask usage after you politely repeated corporate talking points or at least indicated a sign to them?

What if they were packin'?

The number of people refusing to wear masks is probably not fully known. But there are a number of news stories about it. See: https://www.health.com/condition/infectious-diseases/coronavirus/face-mask-refuse-to-wear-one-but-why and lots of other sites (just Google people refusing to wear masks)

Here are some of the retailers drawing a line in the sand when it comes to mask usage:
  • Walmart and Sam's Club
  • Starbucks
  • Kroger
  • Best Buy
  • Target
  • CVS
  • Costco
  • Publix
Fullish list is here: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/mask-walmart-target-kroger-startbucks-best-buy-best-buy-cvs-publix-sams-club/

Hopefully, more retailers will follow suit and more customers will just suck it up and wear the stupid things. 'Cause according to Worldometers, we'll be hitting 4 million cases by EOB Wednesday. See: https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/country/us/ Since we are currently going up by an average of over 65,000 cases/day, that means we'll hit 5 million cases 15 days from now.

US population is currently a little over 331 million (as of the writing of this post). See: https://www.worldometers.info/world-population/us-population/ Hence every million cases is just under another 1/3 of 1% of the country.
tsarstepan
 
  1  
Reply Sat 18 Jul, 2020 02:16 pm
@jespah,
That's all well and good. But what does an individual store or manager need to do when coming up against a near-violent individual who purposefully isn't wearing a mask and trying to enter one of these stores?

I've been fortunate enough that I have yet to come across any ill-intentioned customers who refuse to wear masks when it comes to shopping in several Trader Joes I've patronized the past couple of months.

Just last week, I've witnessed my first(real world) verbal catfight between mask wearer and an asshole who refused to wear one while on the F train to Brooklyn.
 

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