Driving downtown is apocalyptic, huh. Like nothing else. Feels like end of days. I will partially defend PPP here: the money is forgiven if "loan proceeds are

Driving downtown is apocalyptic, huh. Like nothing else. Feels like end of days. I will partially defend PPP here: the money is forgiven if "loan proceeds are used to cover payroll costs, and most mortgage interest, rent, and utility costs." So it's more of a stipulated grant than a loan. As it should be. The failure of PPP is administrative. Congress authorized this much money: who gets it? The Small Business Administration was supposed to administer it, but they are not equipped to do so, so they delegated it to banks, which favored businesses with existing banking relationships. That's a stupid way to distribute a stupidly-small pot of money. I agree with "give money and healthcare to people independent of work" to the extent that this crisis continues. Congress should authorize enormous monies, and the Fed should commit to back it, until the infection rate declines to manageable levels. We can pay for it now or pay more for it later. I do not agree that "bankruptcies aren't that bad." I do not want my hometown's businesses to be "restructured." After this crisis, we will have an economy that is massively distorted towards delivery. Amazon is going to come out of this so much stronger than my neighborhood grocery store - but there was never a problem with that grocery store. "Corporate negligence" is a real issue: some authorized money may go to paying dividends, or executive bonuses, or other garbage, even while they impose layoffs. But if you impose oversight, you delay help to firms that really need it. One thing you can do is post-facto oversight: don't block spending, but let the American people know where the money was spent. And the CARES act sets that up pretty well.