In the face of the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, the government launched the Paycheck Protection Program, a trillion-dollar effort to incentivize employers to retain their employees during the quarantine and maintain most of their compensation. The program was administered by the Small Business Association (SBA) and provided forgivable loans to eligible employers who keep their people on payroll. The idea was a good one, but the execution was terrible. There are millions of employees, self-employed people, independent contractors and small businesses who were excluded. Most of the money did not get to where it was intended.
A lot of companies are not open for business, and if the goal was for the money to get to workers, then the government should have avoided all the middlemen and funded the money directly to the employees. The entire economic relief package related to COVID-19 will end up costing about $6 Trillion. The government could have paid every worker in America $4000/mo for six months for only $2.4 Trillion. Think about it. PPP was not a total failure, but it has been too bureaucratic and way too many people who are important to our economy were left out.
Next week, I will be speaking at a Hispanic Leadership Summit at the United Nations. I was asked to speak on the topic of Unity. The following is a preview of my speech.
Happy Thanksgiving! The blog will resume on December 8, 2024.
The image of Latinos is not just a nice thought; it affects everything from business opportunities and access to capital to how our children are treated at school. Latinos are among the hardest workers and most entrepreneurial of any group in America. However, negativity has dominated the narrative about Latinos for far too long. This one is on us.