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Buffeted by COVID-19, struggling with crumbling finances, one of America’s largest nursing home chains gave its CEO a $5.2 million “retention payment” in late October, just as the second big wave of the pandemic was rising, the Washington Post reported. On Jan. 5, nonetheless, George Hager Jr. retired as head of Genesis HealthCare. He will have to pay an unspecified amount of the money back, to avoid certain tax liabilities, according to an SEC filing by the company, but he will apparently be reimbursed over the next two years. The Genesis board also agreed to give him an immediate $650,000 bonus and a $300,000 consulting contract, according to the filing. The company would not elaborate on the arrangement. Under Hager’s leadership the more than 300 Genesis nursing homes experienced 14,352 confirmed cases of COVID-19 through mid-December, according to reports the company made to Medicare officials. The total number of residents who died of the disease was 2,812, as of Dec. 20. Both figures are higher than in comparable nursing home chains.

U.S. homebuilder confidence in the market for single family homes unexpectedly fell in January, pulled down by surging COVID-19 infections and more expensive lumber, though the housing market remains underpinned by record low mortgage rates, Reuters reported. The NAHB/Wells Fargo Housing Market index slipped to a reading of 83 this month from 86. Economists polled by Reuters had expected the index would be unchanged at 86. A reading above 50 means more builders view market conditions as favorable than poor. The index hit an all-time high of 90 in November. Demand for housing is being driven by cheaper mortgages and an exodus from city centers to suburbs and other low density areas as companies allow employees to work from home and schools shift to online classes because of the coronavirus pandemic. About 23.7% of the labor force is working from home.

President-elect Joe Biden is preparing to sign a blizzard of executive orders as soon as he is inaugurated Wednesday that will lay out his coronavirus, immigration and climate policies, the Washington Post reported. The most pressing of his priorities will be measures to combat the ongoing deadly coronavirus pandemic. Once he is sworn in at noon, Biden plans to sign executive actions that will require masks on all federal grounds and ask agencies to extend moratoriums on evictions and on federal student loan payments. He will urge Americans to don face coverings for 100 days while reviving a global health unit in the National Security Council — allowed to go dormant during the Trump administration — to oversee pandemic preparedness and response. On economic relief stemming from the pandemic, Biden plans to ask the Education Department to consider extending a freeze on both interest and principal payments for federal student loans until Sept. 30, while requesting that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention extend a moratorium on evictions that expires after this month to at least through March. He will also ask three key agencies — the Departments of Veterans Affairs, Agriculture and Housing and Urban Development — to extend foreclosure moratoriums for federally backed mortgages under their purview through at least the end of March. Most of the 17 directives that Biden plans to sign from the Oval Office today have been signaled previously by Biden or staff members.

Janet Yellen, U.S. President-elect Joe Biden’s nominee for Treasury Secretary, urged lawmakers on Tuesday to “act big” on coronavirus relief spending, arguing that the economic benefits far outweigh the risks of a higher debt burden, Reuters reported. In more than three hours of confirmation hearing testimony, the former Federal Reserve chair laid out a vision of a more muscular Treasury that would act aggressively to reduce economic inequality, fight climate change and counter China’s unfair trade and subsidy practices. Taxes on corporations and the wealthy will eventually need to rise to help finance Biden’s ambitious plans for investing in infrastructure, research and development, and for worker training to improve the U.S. economy’s competitiveness, she told members of the Senate Finance Committee. Yellen, who spoke by video link, said her task as Treasury chief will be to help Americans endure the final months of the pandemic as the population is vaccinated, and rebuild the economy to make it more competitive and create more prosperity and more jobs. “Without further action we risk a longer, more painful recession now and longer-term scarring of the economy later,” she said. Yellen said that pandemic relief would take priority over tax increases, but corporations and the wealthy, which both benefited from 2017 Republican tax cuts “need to pay their fair share.” 

The U.S. government is pressuring large lenders to go live this week with another round of a key federal pandemic loan program despite many unresolved issues, sparking an industry scramble to get lending platforms ready, Reuters reported. The Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) reopens to large lenders on Tuesday, with many big banks, including JPMorgan Chase & Co, Wells Fargo & Co and Bank of America, ready to start accepting applications, their representatives said. But with dozens of changes to the rules and government technology system, the latest round is much more complex. Some industry executives worry that the government pressure to launch with so many unresolved issues could cause a rerun of the paperwork and technology snags that dogged last year’s launch. While the program helped millions of small businesses, last year’s problems contributed toward some needy borrowers missing out while some ineligible companies and fraudsters got funds, oversight watchdogs have said. A spokesman for the Small Business Administration (SBA), which jointly administers the PPP with the Treasury Department, said Congress expected the latest round to be launched swiftly to get cash to needy businesses as quickly as possible.

Despite the coronavirus restricting gym capacity while shuttering some entirely, the traditional January spike in memberships has matched — and in some ways exceeded — those of years past, Bloomberg News reported. Part of that can be tied to the predictable explosion of online classes, and a move toward maintaining mental as well as physical health. “It’s not about bikini body goals, because who knows when we’re going to go on vacation again,” said Josh McCarter, chief executive officer of the fitness booking platform MindBody. “Covid-19 has pushed people to think about health more holistically.” The online shift is contributing to what experts said will be a permanent change to how the $32 billion industry works. While 75% of consumers surveyed said they will eventually return to pre-pandemic routines and the actual gym, many indicated they will retain a virtual component — a phenomenon with broad implications for the sector. COVID-19 has accelerated adoption of a hybrid model of online/in-person workouts that more brick-and-mortar gyms are likely to retain when the pandemic recedes. Fitness club-owners grappling with declining memberships have quickly caught on, with 72% now offering on-demand and livestream group workouts, up from 25% in 2019, according to fitness research firm ClubIntel.

Barneys New York is finally returning to its hometown after the pandemic delayed its post-bankruptcy revival plans. The retailer, which for decades was a mainstay of the city’s retail scene, opens Friday inside Saks Fifth Avenue’s Manhattan flagship under the name Barneys at Saks, Bloomberg News reported. It follows an 11-month absence from the city. At 54,000 square feet, the Barneys store-within-a-store is about a fifth the size of its old location that was located several blocks to the north. That store closed in early 2020 after the retailer went bankrupt for the second time. Executives had hoped to inaugurate the project last September, but the pandemic created delays. Merchandise will constantly change and feature selections by both emerging and established designers. Authentic Brands Group, which bought the brand and licensed it to Saks in North America, will open its first standalone Barneys at Saks location in Greenwich, Connecticut, on January 25. The 14,000-square-foot store will offer both men’s and women’s goods.

As President-elect Joseph R. Biden, Jr. prepares to take office this week, his administration and the Federal Reserve are pointed toward a singular economic goal: Get the job market back to where it was before the pandemic hit, the New York Times reported. The humming labor backdrop that existed 11 months ago — with 3.5 percent unemployment, stable or rising work force participation and steadily climbing wages — turned out to be a recipe for lifting all boats, creating economic opportunities for long-disenfranchised groups and lowering poverty rates. And price gains remained manageable and even a touch on the low side. That contrasts with efforts to push the labor market’s limits in the 1960s, which are widely blamed for laying the groundwork for runaway inflation. Then the pandemic cut the test run short, and efforts to contain the virus prompted joblessness to skyrocket to levels not seen since the Great Depression. The recovery has since been interrupted by additional waves of contagion, keeping millions of workers sidelined and causing job losses to recommence. Policymakers across government agree that a return to that hot job market should be a central goal, a notable shift from the last economic expansion and one that could help shape the economic rebound.