%1

Consumer spending fell for the third consecutive month in December, confirming what many economists had predicted would be a disappointing holiday season for many retailers and restaurants, the New York Times reported. Retail sales fell 0.7 percent last month, the Commerce Department said on Friday, as the economic recovery showed signs of stalling and virus cases surged across the country, prompting shoppers to avoid stores amid a new wave of restrictions. For the second straight month, the drop was worse than what most economists had predicted, showing that the deterioration of the broader economy in the final quarter of 2020 was deeper than expected. The drop was widespread across many categories, including electronics, autos, and food and beverage stores, which had been areas of strong spending last spring and summer but declined toward the end of the year. Spending at restaurants in December was down again amid a rise in new cases and closures. The decline most likely also reflects how retailers’ strategies of offering holiday deals early in the fall spread out the holiday shopping season across months, and may have dampened sales closer to Christmas. The Commerce Department also revised its November sales data, showing a decline of 1.4 percent, larger than the 1.1 percent drop it had previously reported.

President-elect Joe Biden yesterday outlined his $1.9 trillion stimulus proposal and called for swift action on it, warning that the health of the nation and its economy hang in the balance, The Hill reported. Speaking six days before he will be inaugurated as the 46th president of the United States, Biden laid out a plan that would support coronavirus vaccination efforts, help reopen schools, deliver critical aid to workers and small businesses, tackle the hunger crisis and send funding to state and local governments. He said that his plan would be two-pronged. The first element is the “American Rescue Plan” the president-elect is asking Congress to pass immediately. The second is a forthcoming recovery package that he plans to lay out in February that will involve investments in infrastructure, research and development and clean energy. Biden said that he plans to describe his recovery package during an address to a joint session of Congress in February. Biden is proposing a $1.9 trillion relief package that includes $415 billion focused on combating the COVID-19 pandemic, over $1 trillion in direct aid to individuals and families and $440 billion in assistance to businesses. The plan includes funding for $1,400 in additional stimulus checks to Americans who qualify for them, adding to $600 checks already enacted in December; an extension for key unemployment programs from mid-March to the end of September; and an increase in weekly additional unemployment assistance from $300 to $400. The proposal also calls for increasing the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour over time. The proposal also sets aside $20 billion for a national vaccination program and $50 billion to scale up coronavirus testing.

More than 1,800 Paycheck Protection Program loans last year went to debt collectors and high-interest lenders, according to an analysis by the Washington Post. In all, the aid to these firms amounted to more than $580 million. More than 170 of those recipients have been the subject of a multitude of complaints — each racking up at least 100 with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), according to The Post’s analysis. Twenty-five have been subject to legal enforcement or consumer alerts, many by the CFPB and the Federal Trade Commission.

Massachusetts is highlighting efforts to help small businesses survive the economic turmoil they have suffered because of the coronavirus pandemic, the Associated Press reported. This week, nearly 1,600 businesses received grants totaling $78.6 million through a state COVID-19 business grant program. It’s the third round of grants to be awarded since Dec. 21, Gov. Charlie Baker said at a news conference yesterday. So far, the administration has awarded close to $195 million in direct financial support to more than 4,100 small businesses out of a $668 million fund set up to support small businesses across the state. The help is targeted at businesses hit hardest by the pandemic, including restaurants, small retailers, and indoor entertainment venues, Baker said. The remaining money will likely go to tens of thousands of businesses in the coming weeks, Baker said. Grants of up to $75,000 are still available, he added. “The program we’re operating is the largest small business grant program using COVID relief funds currently in the United States,” the Republican said. Applications for the next round of grants are due by 11:59 p.m. Friday.

President-elect Joe Biden will unveil a stimulus package proposal today designed to jump-start the economy during the coronavirus pandemic with an economic lifeline that could exceed $1.5 trillion and help minority communities, Reuters reported. Biden campaigned last year on a promise to take the pandemic more seriously than President Donald Trump, and the package aims to put that pledge into action with an influx of resources for the coronavirus vaccine rollout and economic recovery. The incoming administration will work with Congress on the quick stimulus package after Biden takes office on Jan. 20, although the impeachment of Trump threatens to consume lawmakers in the initial weeks. The stimulus package has a price tag above $1.5 trillion and includes a commitment for $1,400 stimulus checks, according to a source familiar with the proposal, and Biden is expected to commit to partner with private companies to increase the number of Americans getting vaccinated. Biden’s incoming White House economic adviser, Brian Deese, told Reuters on Wednesday the president-elect would press Congress to pass immediate stimulus measures and then turn to longer-term economic recovery measures related to healthcare and infrastructure.

A bankrupt internet retailer is the first borrower under the Paycheck Protection Program to settle civil Justice Department fraud allegations after the company falsely claimed it wasn’t bankrupt on a $350,000 loan application, the Wall Street Journal reported. SlideBelts Inc., an e-commerce company selling apparel and wearable technology, and its chief executive Brigham Taylor agreed to pay $100,000 in damages and penalties to resolve civil fraud allegations, according to the U.S. attorney’s office in Sacramento, Calif. SlideBelts returned the $350,000 loan proceeds in July after multiple requests by the Small Business Administration, which administers the PPP. Under SBA rules, companies under bankruptcy protection aren’t eligible to access the PPP, an enormously popular program of forgivable, government-guaranteed loans designed to keep checks flowing to Americans during the COVID-19 pandemic. “The defendants made false statements to multiple banks in order to obtain a [PPP] loan that should have been disbursed to an honest small business suffering financially from the economic effects of the COVID-19 pandemic,” U.S. attorney McGregor W. Scott said Tuesday. The Justice Department and the SBA will “aggressively pursue those who exploit federal programs intended to help those in need during this national emergency,” he said. As part of the settlement, SlideBelts and Mr. Taylor, who is also the company’s chief financial officer, admitted to making false statements to the three different banks where they submitted PPP applications, prosecutors said.

Delays in administering COVID-19 vaccine shots pose a fresh risk to investors who bet on a speedy vaccination process to help risky U.S. companies bounce back from the pandemic, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. The approval of coronavirus vaccines made by Pfizer Inc. and Moderna Inc. last year propelled rescue financing packages for several cash-strapped companies, supplying them with what investors thought would be enough liquidity to keep them afloat until widespread immunity took hold. Cineworld Group PLC, AMC Entertainment Holdings Inc., Carnival Corp. and other companies with bleak outlooks because of the pandemic found financial lifelines to tide them over. These deals continued a trend dating back months before the vaccines were approved, as actions taken by the Federal Reserve and Congress, coupled with investors’ eagerness to continue lending, kept the corporate default rate well below analysts’ expectations. But the sluggish rollout of the vaccines is now undermining the timeline that investors projected when extending emergency credit. The U.S. government fell well short of its goal of vaccinating 20 million Americans in 2020, having administered just 2.8 million doses by the end of last year, according to federal figures, in part due to differing state policies that have led to confusion and shipment delays.

New York City apartment tenants are more than $1 billion in debt from missed rent payments during the coronavirus pandemic, according to a new survey measuring the depth of the rent crisis brought on by COVID-19, the Wall Street Journal reported. The debt figure is the most recent indicator that unemployment benefits and federal stimulus packages have so far been inadequate to alleviate the growing financial burden of missed rent payments across thousands of city households. Both landlord and tenant advocacy groups have lobbied heavily for more government rental assistance during the pandemic. The survey, conducted by the Community Housing Improvement Program, a landlord trade group, focused on New York buildings subject to the city’s rent-regulation laws. These apartments account for about half of the city’s total rental apartments. Tallying responses from landlords, the group estimated that as many as 185,000 households living in these apartments are more than two months behind on rent, with an average debt of more than $6,000. Jay Martin, executive director of CHIP, said rent debt from the rest of New York’s apartment inventory is probably the same or greater, meaning the total debt New York City renters are carrying is likely more than $2 billion. The COVID-19 relief package passed by Congress in December included $1.3 billion in pandemic rental assistance for New York state. It is still unclear how much of that will be made available for New York City, however, or how difficult it will be for tenants to meet eligibility requirements for the funds. State and city housing agencies are expected to roll out their distribution plans for the assistance in the coming weeks.

Senate Democrats plan to prioritize a bill containing more COVID-19 relief, including additional $1,400 payments to many Americans and money to accelerate vaccine deployment, as their “first order of legislative business” when they assume control of the chamber, the New York Times reported. The priorities, which Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, the incoming majority leader, outlined in a letter to colleagues on Tuesday, echo many of the policies that President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. has signaled he will officially unveil on Thursday. The president-elect has said repeatedly in recent days that he will push Congress to pass an additional pandemic relief bill meant to boost the flagging economic recovery and to accelerate efforts to deploy vaccine doses. In a call with Schumer and Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Friday, Biden stressed the need for “immediate economic relief for families and small businesses, funding for COVID-19 response, including vaccinations, testing, school reopening, and state and local frontline workers,” according to a readout from the Biden transition team. Schumer picked up on those themes in his letter. “The work of the 117th Congress will begin in the wake of a devastating attack, on the heels of a devastating year,” he wrote. Schumer said the immediate relief bill would contain the additional money, on top of $600 individual payments Congress approved last month, to fulfill the promise of $2,000 payments that Mr. Biden made to voters in Georgia’s runoff elections this month: “We will get that done.” He also said that it would contain money for vaccine distribution, schools, small businesses and assistance for state and local governments, which was left out of the last COVID-19 package in a dispute with Republicans. Schumer said senators would also prepare broader legislation to address climate change, infrastructure, manufacturing, immigration, criminal justice, inequality and elections.