小企業(yè)貸款計劃是怎樣在短短 4 周內(nèi)出錯的

小企業(yè)貸款計劃是怎樣在短短 4 周內(nèi)出錯的

Trish Pugh started an Ohio trucking company with her husband in 2015. Even for a small business, it's small — they had two drivers, counting her husband, until they let one go because of the coronavirus crisis.

2015年，崔西·普和丈夫在俄亥俄州創(chuàng)辦了一家貨運公司。即使是小公司，也很小——他們有兩個司機，包括她的丈夫，直到其中一個因為冠狀病毒危機而被解雇。

And so her company applied for a loan under the first, $349 billion round of the Paycheck Protection Program, which the federal government had set up to rescue small businesses.

因此，她的公司根據(jù)第一輪3.490億美元的工資保障計劃(簡稱PPP)申請了一筆貸款，該計劃是聯(lián)邦政府為拯救小企業(yè)而設(shè)立的。

It didn't go well.

進展并不順利。

First, there was confusion between her, her banker and the Small Business Administration over what forms were needed to apply. And then, once she did, she soon found out that she had missed out on the money.

首先，她、她(貸款)的銀行和美國小企業(yè)管理局(簡稱SBA)在申請哪些表格上存在困惑。然后，一旦她這樣做了，她很快就發(fā)現(xiàn)她錯過了錢。

"I click on this website, and it tells me that I have to reapply when more funds are available. I was devastated," she said.

“我點擊了這個網(wǎng)站，它告訴我，當(dāng)有更多資金可用時，我必須重新申請。我崩潰了，”她說。

Not only did that first pot of PPP money run out in 13 days, but self-employed people like Pugh were only able to apply one week after the program opened.

不僅PPP的第一筆資金在13天內(nèi)就用完了，而且像普這樣的個體經(jīng)營者在項目啟動后一周才能夠申請。

That put them well behind other businesses in the first-come, first-served program.

這使得他們在“先到先得”計劃中遠(yuǎn)遠(yuǎn)落后于其他企業(yè)。

"We're basically getting ready to lose everything, and it's really sad because we did this all on our own at first," Pugh said as she prepared to apply for the second round of the program, which has $321 billion in funding. "Now that we need help, we can't get help."

“我們基本上準(zhǔn)備好了失去一切，這真的很令人難過，因為我們一開始是靠自己做的，”普在準(zhǔn)備申請該項目第二輪撥款時說。該項目有3.210億美元的資金。“現(xiàn)在我們需要幫助，卻得不到幫助。”

Pugh ended up getting a loan of just over $10.000. It will help, but she's not sure how much longer that will keep her business running.

普最終獲得了1萬多美元的貸款。這將有所幫助，但她不確定自己的生意還能維持多久。

Frustrations like Pugh's have been common since the rollout of the small business rescue program. But her experience was only a sliver of the problems. Here's a list:

自從推出小企業(yè)救助計劃以來，像普這樣的挫折就屢見不鮮。但她的經(jīng)歷只是問題的一小部分。下面是一個列表：

Some not-so-small companies, like Shake Shack, got loans

一些不那么小的公司，比如Shake Shack，獲得了貸款

The PPP was created to allow any company with less than 500 employees to get the loans. But several larger businesses that operate with fewer employees in separate locations, under a franchise model, also applied and received loan money. Shake Shack, for instance, employs nearly 8.000 people at its 189 U.S. restaurants, but only around 45 in each location.

建立PPP是為了讓任何雇員少于500人的公司都能獲得貸款。但幾家規(guī)模較大的企業(yè)也申請并獲得了貸款，這些企業(yè)采用特許經(jīng)營模式，在不同地點經(jīng)營，員工人數(shù)較少。以Shake Shack為例，該公司在美國擁有189家餐廳，員工近8.000人，但每家只有45人左右。

So the chain applied and got a $10 million loan from the SBA, prompting a public outcry, especially after mounting evidence that many smaller restaurants who needed the money weren't able to get loans. Shake Shack promptly returned the money. The company, which has $104 million in cash and liquid assets, said it had secured other loans to cover the money that would have come from the SBA.

因此，這家連鎖店申請了SBA的1000萬美元貸款，引發(fā)了公眾的強烈抗議，尤其是在越來越多的證據(jù)表明，許多需要這筆錢的小餐館無法獲得貸款之后。Shake Shack公司立即歸還了這筆錢。這家擁有1.04億美元現(xiàn)金和流動資產(chǎn)的公司表示，它已經(jīng)獲得了其他貸款，以支付來自小企業(yè)管理局的資金。

The LA Lakers got a loan, too

洛杉磯湖人隊也得到了一筆貸款

Then there were other organizations that aren't quite what most people would call a small business. Like the Los Angeles Lakers basketball team, the eighth most valuable sports team in the world, worth an estimated $3.7 billion, according to Forbes.

還有一些其他的組織并不是大多數(shù)人所說的小企業(yè)。比如洛杉磯湖人隊，它是世界上第八大最有價值的球隊，據(jù)《福布斯》估計，它的價值為37億美元。

Banks reaped $10 billion, just in fees

銀行只收手續(xù)費就賺了100億美元

Another huge beneficiary of the small business loan program: banks.

小企業(yè)貸款計劃的另一個巨大受益者是銀行。

Even as tens of thousands of small businesses were shut out of the program, banks made more than $10 billion in fees, according to an NPR analysis of financial records.

據(jù)美國國家公共電臺對財務(wù)記錄的分析，盡管數(shù)以萬計的小企業(yè)被排除在該計劃之外，銀行卻從中賺取了100多億美元的費用。

Much of the money went to thriving, not struggling, companies

很多錢都花在了蓬勃發(fā)展的公司，而不是苦苦掙扎的公司

Large companies, we now know, got loans. Now it appears that companies didn't have to be struggling to win a loan, either.

我們現(xiàn)在知道，大公司得到了貸款?，F(xiàn)在看來，企業(yè)也不必為爭取貸款而苦苦掙扎。

The problem is that the program wasn't designed to help companies grow. It was meant to rescue small companies, nonprofits and self-employed people struggling to make payroll or pay benefits and utilities.

問題是，這個項目的設(shè)計初衷并不是為了幫助公司成長。它的目的是拯救小公司、非營利組織和個體戶，這些人難以支付工資或支付福利和公用事業(yè)費用。

Some small businesses say the loans have too many strings

一些小企業(yè)表示，這些貸款有太多的附加條件

Business owners lucky enough to get the funding have said the money kept their businesses afloat. However, some owners also said PPP rules are not allowing them to use the money in the ways they see as best.

幸運地獲得這筆資金的企業(yè)主表示，這筆資金使他們的企業(yè)得以維持下去。然而，一些業(yè)主也表示，PPP規(guī)則不允許他們以自己認(rèn)為最好的方式使用資金。

Among their biggest complaints: 75% of the loans must be spent on payroll. The rest can only be spent on a few categories: rent, mortgage interest or utilities.

他們最大的抱怨之一是: 75%的貸款必須花在工資上。剩下的錢只能花在幾個方面:房租、抵押貸款利息或水電費。

But with many businesses unable to reopen, owners wonder how to spend that much on payroll when they have little or no work for their employees to do.

但由于許多企業(yè)無法重新開業(yè)，老板們想知道，當(dāng)他們的員工幾乎沒有工作可做或根本沒有工作可做時，該如何在工資上花那么多錢。