The PPP is a flawed program. But it's super important. When the decision was made to distribute the money through banks it seemed like a bad idea. It's become clear it was a significantly worse idea than it appeared at first. First, there's a lot of evidence that red and/or ...

2/ rural states are getting much more of their payrolls covered than blue states. That sounds like obvious politics. And given what we know about the Trump administration, some of it probably is. But there's an important factor, possibly the most important ...

3/ factor. These states tend to have much greater density of community banks and regional banks. They appear to have been much more efficient in getting out loans. Why? Well first, they know their clients better. They're also MUCH more incentivized. If a substantial ...

4/ number of a community banks small business clients go under it could take the bank with them. If a bunch of Citi's or Chase's small business clients go under they really couldn't care less. This isn't just talk. I know from 15 years of personal experience as a small ...

5/ business owner. In places like New York the big commercial banks totally dominate banking. For small businesses the service is bad beyond belief. Because there's really zero competition. Great, you switch from Citi to Chase. Doesn't matter. Unsurprisingly the big ...

6/ commercial banks have tended to move most quickly for their most important clients. That's not surprising. Any business will do that. This is I think a big reason why many of the most hard hit COVID19 areas have gotten the least money.

7/ Another thing that is hard to figure is that the banks are asking for WAYYYYY more information from PPP applicants than the law even remotely calls for. After all these are unsecured loans. The banks have zero risk. Not clear to me whether the banks are just ...

8/ unable, institutionally, to get their head around what amount to no questions asked loans or whether they're using the opportunity to harvest information from existing or potential clients. It's been suggested in some cases that banks have actually prioritized ...

9/ loans to companies that seemed least likely to lay off employees. The loans are potentially written off if a recipient doesn't lay off employees. But obviously the businesses least likely to lay people off or need to lay people off are pretty much by definition the ...

10/ the least likely to be the companies that are the intended beneficiaries. Again, obvious. And here too, not entirely clear to me whether this is some level of bad faith on the part of the big banks vs defaulting to the bank's most robust relationships of legitimate ...

11/ unclarity about how the government intended the program to be used.