By Eric Lendrum
A new report by the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis revealed that American taxpayers ended up paying $4 for every $1 in wages and benefits that workers received as a result of the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP).
Just The News reports that the study also revealed how the PPP ultimately did not protect jobs that were at risk of disappearing during the pandemic, and that money overwhelmingly went to wealthier households rather than middle- and low-income households.
The study, titled “Was the Paycheck Protection Program Effective,” was written by co-authors William Emmons and Drew Dahl. They concluded that, while “the PPP was a very large and very timely fiscal-policy intervention, saving about 3 million jobs at its peak in the second quarter of 2020 and distributing $800 billion well within two years of the onset of the COVID-19 crisis,” the program ultimately “was poorly targeted, as almost three-quarters of its benefits went to unintended recipients, including business owners, creditors and suppliers, rather than to workers.”
“Due to differences in the typical incomes of those varied constituencies, it also ended up being quite regressive compared with other major COVID-19 relief programs, as it benefited high-income households much more,” the report continued.
The PPP was first created in early 2020 as a temporary program under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act, signed into law by President Donald Trump. The program was intended to aid small businesses that were ordered to either slow down or stop operations altogether as part of the initial lockdown measures. Low-interest loans could be made for up to $10 million, without collateral, for businesses with fewer than 500 employees.
The report by the St. Louis Fed ultimately found that small business owners spent $3 out of every $4 in PPP loans on paying back suppliers and paying other expenses. Overall, 72 percent of PPP funds went to households with incomes in the top 20 percent, according to the report.
We saw our Senators and Congress People trade personal stock market profiteering for their own constituent's futures in the Department of Energy scandals.
https://www.businessinsider.com/congress-stock-act-violations-senate-house-trading-2021-9
Jun 29, 2022 ... Congress passed the law a decade ago to combat insider trading and conflicts of interest among their own members and force lawmakers to be more ...
May 26, 2020 ... Insider trading by a member of Congress is a crime. To bring a case here, however, federal authorities must overcome two obstacles: the ...
https://www.congress.gov/bill/117th-congress/house-bill/2655
This bill generally provides statutory authority for the prohibition against securities trading, as well as related communications to others, by a person aware ...
Feb 9, 2022 ... The Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge Act of 2012 improved disclosure of trades and prohibited use of “any nonpublic information ...
https://www.congressionalinstitute.org/2018/08/16/can-members-of-congress-engage-in-insider-trading/
Aug 16, 2018 ... Even if it was possible to prosecute congressional insider trading before the STOCK Act, with both it and other laws in force today, it is ...
https://campaignlegal.org/update/stock-act-failed-effort-stop-insider-trading-congress
Feb 18, 2022 ... Congress passed the Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge Act (STOCK Act) in 2012, following more than 10 years of allegations of insider ...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2020_congressional_insider_trading_scandal
2020 congressional insider trading scandal ... The Department of Justice (DOJ) initiated a probe into the stock transactions on March 30, 2020. No charges were ...
Feb 12, 2022 ... Insider trading is illegal for everyone, not just members of Congress. But as Sherman points out, it's exceedingly hard to prove, and lawmakers ...
Apr 11, 2022 ... The heightened interest in a stock trading ban comes weeks after an investigation by Insider found that since 2019, 59 members of Congress ...
Jan 25, 2022 ... Insider trading is a felony, but it is also difficult to prove. In 2012 Congress passed the Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge Act (STOCK ...
Just as there are few who know that not all trading on the basis of inside information is illegal, it is also a little-known fact that members of Congress and ...
Aug 6, 2020 ... Insider trading, or the act of buying or selling investments based on nonpublic information, is against the law. At its core, insider trading ...
Apr 5, 2022 ... 3631), which would ban Members of Congress and their spouses from owning and trading individual stocks. The legislation is the only bipartisan ...
https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/insider_trading
Congress has criminalized these insiders' use of non-public information under the theory that the use fraudulently violates a fiduciary duty with which the ...
https://scholarship.law.wm.edu/wmblr/vol5/iss1/5/
Spring 2012 saw the enactment of the “Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge Act of 2012” or “STOCK Act.” It supposedly repealed an exemption from the ...
https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2022/01/congress-stock-trading-ban/621402/
Jan 30, 2022 ... Congress thought it had already fixed what looked alarmingly like insider trading by its members. In 2012, lawmakers overwhelmingly voted to ...
Apr 19, 2020 ... Following an investigative report revealing congressional insider trading, the Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge (STOCK) Act was passed ...
https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/CHRG-112shrg72559/html/CHRG-112shrg72559.htm
This hearing is an important step in our efforts to ensure that Members of Congress are not profiting from trading on insider information.
https://www.bu.edu/law/journals-archive/bulr/documents/nagy.pdf
INSIDER TRADING BY MEMBERS OF CONGRESS AND LEGISLATIVE. STAFFERS. ... Illegal Trading on Confidential Congressional Information, 2 HARV. L. & POL'Y REV.
https://insidertrading.procon.org/
Opponents contend that congressional insider trading allows for unethical profiteering and conflicts of interest and that government officials should be held to ...
Apr 5, 2022 ... 3631), which would ban Members of Congress and their spouses from owning and trading individual stocks. The legislation is the only bipartisan ...
https://scholarship.law.wm.edu/wmblr/vol5/iss1/5/
Spring 2012 saw the enactment of the “Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge Act of 2012” or “STOCK Act.” It supposedly repealed an exemption from the ...
Jan 24, 2022 ... Though the STOCK Act theoretically bans members of Congress from profiting from insider trading, in practice, "it it can be nearly ...
https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/CHRG-112shrg72559/html/CHRG-112shrg72559.htm
This hearing is an important step in our efforts to ensure that Members of Congress are not profiting from trading on insider information.
https://www.bu.edu/law/journals-archive/bulr/documents/nagy.pdf
INSIDER TRADING BY MEMBERS OF CONGRESS AND LEGISLATIVE. STAFFERS. ... Illegal Trading on Confidential Congressional Information, 2 HARV. L. & POL'Y REV.
https://insidertrading.procon.org/
Opponents contend that congressional insider trading allows for unethical profiteering and conflicts of interest and that government officials should be held to ...
https://www.closeup.org/should-members-of-congress-be-banned-from-trading-stocks/
Feb 15, 2022 ... Last month, Senators Jon Ossoff (D-Ga.) and Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.) introduced the Ban Congressional Stock Trading Act, a reform bill which ...
Members of the United States Congress receive confidential information with significant economic implications. They are allowed to own and trade stocks and ...
Jan 19, 2022 ... Almost 10 years ago, Congress overwhelmingly passed the STOCK Act — requiring members and their spouses to disclose when they buy or sell ...
https://prospect.org/power/another-possible-congressional-stock-trading-loophole/
Mar 9, 2022 ... Another Possible Stock Trading Loophole ... Members of Congress would be allowed to continue trading industry funds under the two leading stock ...