The House passed the $484b bill already approved by the Senate that will put more money into two drained relief funds for small businesses.
The bill also contains assistance for hospitals and money for a nationwide coronavirus testing program. President Trump will sign the legislation today.
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The bill will give another $320b to the Paycheck Protection Program, which exhausted its initial $350b allocation last week.
Hospitals will receive $75b, and $25b will go to virus testing. The bill also mandates the White House devise a testing strategy for the states.
Lenders and small business advocates fear this $484b won't be enough.
The SBA issued guidance advising publicly traded companies to return loans they've already received. (See #3, below).
The Federal Reserve warned companies there would be more transparency this time, promising to publish the names of companies accessing bailout funds, including the amounts borrowed and the interest rate.
Women own 42% of U.S. businesses but a survey shows women-owned businesses only received 25% of PPP funds.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., suggested that states facing budget crises should consider declaring bankruptcy rather than accept more federal aid. New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo called the statement irresponsible and reckless, firing back that New York contributes more to the federal coffers than it receives, unlike Kentucky.
Thursday's weekly jobless claims of 4.4 million people applying for unemployment makes a total of 26 million unemployed Americans in the past five weeks.
Analysts are estimating an unemployment rate of 23% – the worst in 87 years.
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The true number of people unemployed is likely between 23m and 70m, meaning unemployment could be as high as 45%, Axios reports.
The economy was at near-full employment just two months ago.
Women are the majority of first-time unemployment seekers, with their share of claims ranging from 53% (Wyoming) to 67% (Alabama).
With growing backlogs, millions of Americans are still awaiting their first unemployment check. Only 7% of filers in Florida have received their first payment.
Consumer spending, which fueled the longest economic expansion in history, has evaporated.
Analysts are now warning of a W-shaped recovery.
Interestingly, states with lockdown protests are showing lower unemployment, according to FiveThirtyEight.
Most of the U.S. economy should reopen by late August, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said.
Under the Trump administration's plan, governors will schedule how quickly their states reopen, with less dense communities reopening before cities. The plan envisions a step-by-step reopening amid the current deep recession.
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Howard Schultz says small businesses need a Marshall Plan to supply federally-backed loans to reopen in the COVID economy.
Economist Paul Romer's roadmap to reopen calls for a "test and isolate” policy to help people return to work and keep infections rates under 5%.
@RandPaul argues that job losses will continue unless America reopens. "It’s not a lack of money that plagues us. It’s lack of commerce."