Pastor Art Pavelski says his Vestal, New York church has to do services in Zoom. But he has noticed it bringing in more people. The economy may be down, but he says faith is growing.

Mama’s in McAllen, Texas is working to stay afloat during the COVID-19 shutdown and keep its employees on staff. But in order to do so, it needs to do curbside service. This is tough and they want to re-open!

An Elsa, Texas car lot owner is grateful to be in his state. He says times have been tough, though they could be tougher. But he has worked to keep his employees working and he sees light at the end of the tunnel. He believes he is at an advantage because he is in the Lone Star State.

$350 billion of forgivable loans for 8 weeks won’t be enough to save 30 million small businesses, Mr. President:http://dailytorch.com/2020/04/350-billion-of-forgivable-loans-for-8-weeks-wont-be-enough-to-save-30-million-small-businesses-mr-president/

One of the key aspects of President Donald Trump and Congress’ $2.2 trillion coronavirus relief package are provisions for $350 billion for 30 million small businesses to cover payrolls for 60 million Americans for eight weeks to encourage people to stay home to wait out the Chinese coronavirus pandemic. Along with the expanded unemployment and credit facilities covering critical industries and larger employers, the policy is designed to ensure that in saving as many lives as possible — the White House coronavirus task force has said as many as 2.2 million Americans could die without social distancing — we don’t find ourselves in a long, deep recession or depression as a result that might take a decade to recover from. As President Trump keeps saying, the cure cannot be worse than the disease. That is why we have to consider the very real possibility that $350 billion and eight weeks of loans will not be nearly enough to save these businesses, even if we have no new coronavirus cases come May or June. Looking back at the ten recessions that have occurred since 1948, it took on average 11 months for all the job losses to be realized to get to the labor market bottom, and another 16 months to recover. The entire ordeal lasts on average 27 months. Do you think we’ll get a speedy recovery after the pandemic ends?

Up to 13 million jobs lost in less than a month amid government closing economy to win war on Chinese coronavirus:
http://dailytorch.com/2020/04/13-million-jobs-lost-in-less-than-a-month-amid-government-closing-economy-to-win-war-on-chinese-coronavirus/

Unemployment claims hit an all-time record at 6.6 million last week amid the national lockdown to combat the Chinese coronavirus and save as many lives as possible. 45 states have issued stay at home orders in their states, including 38 that have issued them for the entire state, effectively shutting down their economies. All 50 states have closed schools. That brings the total of unemployment claims for the past two weeks up to about 10 million, already dwarfing the total job losses in the financial crisis and 2007-2009 recession, which topped 8.3 million in Dec. 2009. Those losses took about three years to be realized as mortgage markets cratered and property values plummeted.On top of that in March alone an additional 3 million Americans lost their jobs according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Added to the past two weeks’ data on unemployment claims, that could bring the total job losses from coronavirus related closings up to 13 million and counting. To prevent a long, deep recession the federal government must make these economic incentives passed by Congress to maintain payroll for the duration of the pandemic available now. Aggressive advertising will be needed to bring these programs to everyone’s attention. Now, how deep the recession is will largely be determined by the extent of the pandemic, how long states remain closed and how effective social distancing is. When the pandemic is over, it will be up to the states to reopen as quickly as possible and the emergency benefits encouraging people not to work phased out. The long-term consequences of delay could mean it takes a decade to recover economically from this virus, with much of the damage already done. What do you think?