Private companies: "
PPP Loan Terms Amount to Legalized Fraud"
States: "
governors regardless of party ...would love to have free money" (quoting Mitch McConnell, "
the 'Marie Antoinette of the Senate'")
Okay, the first reference is an opinion piece, but the facts are accurate and it's the same conclusion I drew when I examined the PPP program for small businesses a week or two ago.
Basically, the government is handing "small" businesses cash as a supposed loan that they don't have to pay back so long as they maintain payroll for
eight weeks. That includes such "small" "companies" as
Harvard,
Ruth's Chris Steakhouse, etc.
The maximum amount (not more than 2.5x monthly payroll) is supposed to be $10M. Harvard got $9M. Ruth's Chris wrangled $20M via two subsidiaries. Harvard has been shamed into returning the "loan". Maybe given the size of its endowment it had second thoughts about having signed a statement that “Current economic uncertainty makes this loan request necessary to support the ongoing operations of the Applicant.”
Harvard's website shows the school employs
one philosophy professor with a research interest in ethics. Too few, or too ineffective, it seems.
Comments
Devos's language about 'primarily serving low-income students' would apply to an awful lot of other schools, although most of them, including Harvard, go to great lengths to do so if they can do the work. The sucking up of moneys by unworthy others, not just steakhouses, shows lack of gov QC, planning, foresight, etc., --- surprise.