The $500 billion Paycheck Protection Program was meant to plug the employment drain, but when Chetty and his colleagues calculated the increase in employment, it was only 2 percent. They figured that each job saved cost taxpayers about $375,000. In part, this was because checks went to companies that weren’t planning to lay off many workers anyway. But according to the Small Business Administration, there were also indications of widespread fraud, including businesses that suddenly popped up after the pandemic started. The FBI opened hundreds of investigations. Among the ironies was the fact
...more
