“It looks like Democrats managed to get some strings attached [to the $500 billion for big businesses]… There will be an inspector general and a five-member panel assigned to do oversight of the program. Any company that receives a loan can't do stock buybacks or pay out dividends as long as they're getting help, plus an extra year. Nor are they allowed to lay off more than 10 percent of their employees. There are also restrictions on executive compensation… Unfortunately, it appears Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin will have extremely broad powers to waive those restrictions as he sees fit. And did I mention the Fed has already hired the Wall Street behemoth BlackRock to help it administer this program?”
Jeff Spross, The Week

Yet “The biggest problem is that the package is too short-term. The UI provisions expire in four months. The loans are a one-off package. The state and local aid doesn’t re-up despite states like Ohio saying they’re facing budget cuts of 20 percent. The cash checks only go out once, and not as quickly as they could…

“[One option would be to] keep sending out $2,000 checks, financed by the Federal Reserve, for each adult and child… every month until the employment to population ratio for working-age people reaches 80.5 percent again, its level when this crisis started… You could do the same with aid to state and local governments. Start by offering 50 percent of their 2019 state revenue as a federal grant, taking advantage of the ultra-low interest rates the federal government currently enjoys. Phase down the grant amounts as we approach full employment again. Make the process automatic, reflecting actual economic data, not Congress’s whims.”
Dylan Matthews, Vox

“The Senate bill will reportedly provide states with $150 billion in funding for defraying the cost of Covid-related expenses. Which is better than nothing. But the sum total is too low, and the restriction on the use of the funds is small-minded. The true cost of fighting Covid-19 can’t be measured exclusively in state spending on health care and public health. Enforcing lockdowns and social distancing requires states to forfeit massive amounts of expected revenue…

“Ohio Governor Mike DeWine earned accolades for taking early, proactive measures to contain the spread of the coronavirus in his state. But one consequence of those acts of responsible governance is that the Buckeye State’s Treasury is getting depleted fast. As a result, DeWine is now calling for 20 percent across-the-board cuts to Ohio’s budget. Unless Congress sends more relief to the states, federal stimulus will be undermined by state-level austerity as teachers and other public workers lose their jobs or suffer steep pay cuts that depress consumer demand in local economies, undermining basic government services.”
Eric Levitz, New York Magazine

“Denmark has agreed to compensate Danish employers for up to 90 percent of their workers’ salaries. In the Netherlands, companies facing a loss of at least 20 percent of their revenue can similarly apply for the government to cover 90 percent of payroll… Under Germany’s Kurzarbeit scheme, the government chips in even for workers kept on part time…

“Preserving jobs is important because a job isn’t merely about the money. Compensated labor provides a sense of independence, identity and purpose; an unemployment check does not replace any of those things. People who lose jobs also lose their benefits — and in the United States, that includes their health insurance… [Moreover] preserving ties between companies and workers could help to accelerate the eventual economic recovery once the pandemic passes… the [US] government agreed to give workers who lose their jobs an extra $600 a week. We’d all be better off if the government had helped those workers keep their jobs instead.”
Editorial Board, New York Times