Why small business loans for COVID-19 relief may be delayed

The federal government's guidelines for banks only went out Thursday night — hours before the program was supposed to start.
Can banks really start writing emergency loans to small businesses today as expected?
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Tracing the history of the census, at a time when 2020 operations are suspended

The 2020 census was planning to deploy up to 500,000 census takers to follow up with households that didn't respond online or by mail.
The U.S. Census Bureau announced that it has suspended census field operations for now over concerns of the census workers and their public interactions amid the global coronavirus pandemic.
Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

Volunteers are making masks to help with COVID-19 shortages. Who will use them?

Apr 3, 2020
Some hospitals are accepting homemade face masks, but they may have limited uses.
Oluwatosin Fagbuyi, a graduate student at Tennessee State University, has been helping keep the school’s 3D printers running, molding headbands as part of a face shield for medical workers.
Blake Farmer/ WPLN

It's not just undocumented immigrants who could be left out of the stimulus money

Apr 2, 2020
U.S. citizens with an undocumented spouse or child would also be denied a check.
Stay-at-home orders in California and elsewhere have exempted farmworkers. Above, farmworkers harvest zucchini Wednesday in Florida.
Joe Raedle/Getty Images

Book publishing has a tight calendar, even in a pandemic

Apr 2, 2020
Publishing can't easily go on hold until the fall — which is when publishers tend to release the year's biggest titles.
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Millions are facing unemployment without savings to fall back on

Apr 2, 2020
The median U.S. household has just a couple of weeks worth of savings to tap into in a crisis.
Some economists believe the unemployment rate could hit 30% before long.
Angela Weiss/AFP via Getty Images

Pay cuts spreading beyond executive suite

Apr 2, 2020
Cuts to pay can save jobs, but they can hurt morale, too.
As pay cuts spread further down from the executive suite, they hit average workers harder. Above, cashiers wearing protective masks work in a grocery store in Brooklyn on April 2.
Stephanie Keith/Getty Images

For public good, not for profit.

Is takeout food safe during COVID-19?

Apr 2, 2020
As more states issue restrictions on restaurants, here’s how to support local businesses while keeping you, your family and the restaurant workers safe and healthy during COVID-19.
An employee at a San Francisco restaurant hands a takeout order to a customer through a window on April 1.
Josh Edelson/AFP via Getty Images

COVID-19 makes it harder for commercial shipping crews to go home

Apr 2, 2020
Around 100,000 people in the world’s commercial shipping crews are finding it hard to change shifts as COVID-19 shuts down ports of entry.
A crew member wearing orange overalls and a safety helmet working on the deck of a cargo ship at sea.
Arterra/Universal Images Group via Getty Images

Stiglitz: How the U.S. economy recovers from COVID-19 hinges on Americans' debt

Apr 2, 2020
"For those businesses that are getting so much help from the government, part of that should be used to help the debtors," said Nobel laureate Joseph Stiglitz.
"What we need right now is a stay to make sure that people can pay by postponing it until the economy is running again," economist Joseph Stiglitz says of credit card debt.
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