Suddenly, everyone at all levels of government seems to agree: Americans need money fast, because the economic fallout from the coronavirus pandemic is just too swift and severe.
Little has yet materialized in the form of cash in people’s hands, but here’s a roundup of what’s being floated today:
• Trump wants two waves of direct payments made to all Americans, though how much would be in each payment remains unclear.
• A $1 trillion federal rescue plan is “coming into focus,” and could include $300 billion to help small businesses across the country avoid layoffs.
• That $1 trillion plan comes on top of last week’s $8.3 billion federal assistance measure, which was aimed at boosting public health efforts to combat to the spread of coronavirus.
• The New York Times editorial board says: “Give every American $2,000 immediately.”
• Jacobin is calling for an “emergency rent freeze.”
• Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan has frozen both residential and commercial evictions.
• Durkan has also established a $2.5 million “Small Business Stabilization Fund.” In addition, she’s pointing local businesses to the federal Small Business Administration’s “Economic Injury Disaster Loans.”
• Washington State Governor Jay Inslee is holding a press conference at 3 pm this afternoon with the head of the state’s Employment Security Department and Mayor Durkan. If you’ve recently been laid off due to the coronavirus pandemic, here’s what state leaders currently have for you.
• Financial journalist Andrew Ross Sorkin has an idea that he thinks is better suited to this moment than bailouts: zero-interest “bridge loans” to all Americans and US businesses, to be paid back over five years.
• Foreclosures on all homes with mortgages backed by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac have been suspended.
• Public housing evictions have been suspended by the feds, too.
• Major mortgage lenders are working on a “temporary pause” in required payments on home loans nationwide.
• Charles Mudede says no bailout for cruise ships.
• And Elizabeth Warren has some demands for any major companies that end up getting a coronavirus bailout from the US government. Those demands include a requirement that such companies move to the $15 minimum wage “within one year of the end of the national emergency.”
