小企业贷款计划是怎样在短短 4 周内出错的

小企业贷款计划是怎样在短短 4 周内出错的

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创办了一家货运公司。即使是小公司，也很小——他们有两个司机，包括她的丈夫，直到其中一个因为冠状病毒危机而被解雇。

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，她的公司根据第一轮3.490亿美元的工资保障计划(简称PPP)申请了一笔贷款，该计划是联邦政府为拯救小企业而设立的。

It didn't go well.

进展并不顺利。

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(贷款)的银行和美国小企业管理局(简称SBA)在申请哪些表格上存在困惑。然后，一旦她这样做了，她很快就发现她错过了钱。

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

“我点击了这个网站，它告诉我，当有更多资金可用时，我必须重新申请。我崩溃了，”她说。

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.

不仅PPP的第一笔资金在13天内就用完了，而且像普这样的个体经营者在项目启动后一周才能够申请。

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

这使得他们在“先到先得”计划中远远落后于其他企业。

"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."

“我们基本上准备好了失去一切，这真的很令人难过，因为我们一开始是靠自己做的，”普在准备申请该项目第二轮拨款时说。该项目有3.210亿美元的资金。“现在我们需要帮助，却得不到帮助。”

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.

普最终获得了1万多美元的贷款。这将有所帮助，但她不确定自己的生意还能维持多久。

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:

自从推出小企业救助计划以来，像普这样的挫折就屡见不鲜。但她的经历只是问题的一小部分。下面是一个列表：

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

一些不那么小的公司，比如Shake Shack，获得了贷款

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是为了让任何雇员少于500人的公司都能获得贷款。但几家规模较大的企业也申请并获得了贷款，这些企业采用特许经营模式，在不同地点经营，员工人数较少。以Shake Shack为例，该公司在美国拥有189家餐厅，员工近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，这家连锁店申请了SBA的1000万美元贷款，引发了公众的强烈抗议，尤其是在越来越多的证据表明，许多需要这笔钱的小餐馆无法获得贷款之后。Shake Shack公司立即归还了这笔钱。这家拥有1.04亿美元现金和流动资产的公司表示，它已经获得了其他贷款，以支付来自小企业管理局的资金。

The LA Lakers got a loan, too

洛杉矶湖人队也得到了一笔贷款

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.

还有一些其他的组织并不是大多数人所说的小企业。比如洛杉矶湖人队，它是世界上第八大最有价值的球队，据《福布斯》估计，它的价值为37亿美元。

Banks reaped $10 billion, just in fees

银行只收手续费就赚了100亿美元

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

小企业贷款计划的另一个巨大受益者是银行。

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.

据美国国家公共电台对财务记录的分析，尽管数以万计的小企业被排除在该计划之外，银行却从中赚取了100多亿美元的费用。

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

很多钱都花在了蓬勃发展的公司，而不是苦苦挣扎的公司

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

我们现在知道，大公司得到了贷款。现在看来，企业也不必为争取贷款而苦苦挣扎。

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.

问题是，这个项目的设计初衷并不是为了帮助公司成长。它的目的是拯救小公司、非营利组织和个体户，这些人难以支付工资或支付福利和公用事业费用。

Some small businesses say the loans have too many strings

一些小企业表示，这些贷款有太多的附加条件

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.

幸运地获得这笔资金的企业主表示，这笔资金使他们的企业得以维持下去。然而，一些业主也表示，PPP规则不允许他们以自己认为最好的方式使用资金。

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.

他们最大的抱怨之一是: 75%的贷款必须花在工资上。剩下的钱只能花在几个方面:房租、抵押贷款利息或水电费。

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.

但由于许多企业无法重新开业，老板们想知道，当他们的员工几乎没有工作可做或根本没有工作可做时，该如何在工资上花那么多钱。