NEW YORK – The Trump administration has dispensed about $530 billion to millions of small businesses to cushion them from the sharp downturn induced by the coronavirus.
The question is: how effective will the Paycheck Protection Program be? Some small business owners say the program’s low-cost loans have enabled them to forestall layoffs or rehire staff – and they appreciate that the loans are forgiven if they spend the bulk of the money saving jobs.
However, even with these incentives, the program is running up against a brutal reality: unemployment is rising to Depression-era levels and a deep recession has settled upon Main Streets across the country even as states begin to restart their economies.