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The nation’s governors raised concerns on a bipartisan basis Monday about implementing President Trump’s new executive action aimed at extending enhanced unemployment insurance, and called on Congress to act instead, the Washington Post reported. But on Capitol Hill, negotiations showed no signs of life as Democrats and Republicans traded accusations about their failure to reach a deal during two weeks of talks that collapsed on Friday. In their statement, the governors pointed to “significant administrative burdens and costs” associated with attempting to implement a new plan Trump announced over the weekend, which would attempt to provide $400 weekly emergency unemployment benefits, with states required to apply for the funds and pay a quarter of the cost. The statement was issued by National Governors Association chairman Andrew M. Cuomo, the Democratic governor of New York, and vice chairman Asa Hutchinson, the Republican governor of Arkansas. "The best way forward is for the Congress and the administration to get back to the negotiating table and come up with a workable solution,” the pair wrote. Read more. 

In related news, two days after President Donald Trump moved to implement scaled-down coronavirus relief to prod Congress into action, Republicans and Democrats remained deadlocked over a stimulus plan and gave no indication they were ready to head back into negotiations, Bloomberg News reported. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said yesterday that he’s spoken with “several Democrats,” but not House Speaker Nancy Pelosi or Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer since their last negotiating session ended on Friday without any breakthrough. Starting off the week, the two sides exchanged blame but no new ideas for restarting talks. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell on the chamber’s floor accused Democrats of trying to gain “political leverage over the president of the United States” to push for a big stimulus package that he said includes non-coronavirus items. Schumer followed him, saying Democrats “remain ready to return to the table” but Republicans need to “meet us there halfway.” Read more. 

Additionally, the Labor Department said that the federal government spent nearly $250 billion on extra $600-a-week unemployment benefits from early April to the end of July as millions of workers were laid off because of the coronavirus pandemic, the Wall Street Journal reported. Workers who permanently lost their jobs, were furloughed or had their hours cut were able to tap $600 in federal unemployment benefits on top of the amount they qualified for from the state, under a relief law Congress passed and President Trump signed in March. The benefits expired on July 31. Trump on Saturday signed an executive order that would replace the larger payments with $300 a week in enhanced unemployment benefits, and called on states to provide another $100 a week. The White House remained deadlocked yesterday over a broader pandemic relief deal with Democratic lawmakers, who said the president’s moves over the weekend were an unconstitutional breach of congressional spending powers. Individuals tapping regular state programs, the largest source of benefits, at the beginning of August saw weekly payments decline to near the $332 average weekly payment made under those programs in the past year. Self-employed and gig workers — who don’t usually qualify for unemployment assistance — saw a steeper decline in payments. Read more. (Subscription required.) 

Brand-licensing company WHP Global Inc. has bowed out of the race for Brooks Brothers Inc., according to people familiar with the matter, leaving a venture backed by apparel-licensing firm Authentic Brands Group LLC and mall owner Simon Property Group Inc. poised to take control of the bankrupt retailer, the Wall Street Journal reported. Like Authentic Brands, WHP Global buys consumer brands, often out of bankruptcy, and revives them by shedding unprofitable locations. Sparc Group LLC, the Authentic Brands-Simon venture, had bid $305 million for Brooks Brothers last month. That “stalking horse” offer includes a commitment to keep 125 Brooks Brothers stores open. The retailer has roughly 200 stores in North America. The Sparc offer had been subject to better bids, but the deadline for rival offers passed last week. WHP and Sparc had been vying to buy Brooks Brothers since before the retailer filed for bankruptcy. WHP had submitted a bid for $334 million for Brooks Brothers in July, but the retailer deemed Sparc’s offer a better deal. The firms also competed to provide Brooks Brothers a loan to finance its bankruptcy proceedings, a battle won by Sparc. Given that, WHP decided not to move forward with its offer.

Sur La Table Inc., the bankrupt upscale cookware chain, sold for almost $90 million and a promise to keep at least 50 stores open, according to court papers, Bloomberg News reported. A joint venture between e-commerce investment firm CSC Generation and Marquee Brands topped an opening bid from affiliates of Fortress Investment Group at auction last week, according to court papers and a lawyer for Sur La Table’s junior creditors. A representative for Sur La Table didn’t respond to requests for comment, while CSC founder Justin Yoshimura and Marquee didn’t immediately respond to emails seeking comment Monday evening. Sur La Table, known for its in-store cooking classes and pricey kitchenware, shut its stores as COVID-19 gripped the U.S., then filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy in July. The company was headed toward a full-blown liquidation until Fortress stepped in with a stalking-horse bid. The sale still needs bankruptcy court approval. A successful sale of the chain would save some 2,000 jobs, the company said in previous court papers. The retailer, founded in 1972, had 121 stores across the U.S. when it filed for bankruptcy, according to a statement at the time. CSC Generation was founded in 2016 and has since bought the intellectual property of bankrupt department-store chain Bon-Ton Stores Inc. and home decor chain Z Gallerie. Marquee is a brand management firm owned by investor funds managed by Neuberger Berman. The case is SLT Holdco Inc., 20-18368, U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of New Jersey (Trenton).

The Federal Reserve released detailed data yesterday on its first-ever attempt to get loans to midsize businesses, and the figures show that the program is reaching a diverse set of borrowers, the New York Times reported. The numbers run through July 31 and account for $92.2 million in loans, which is about half of what the so-called Main Street program has backed so far, based on more recent data cited by a Fed official last week. The program’s 13 loans through July 31 went to a range of companies — including a dentist, a concrete company, a lighting company, a roofing company and a casino. The smallest loan, for $1.5 million, went to Pablo Alfaro Group, a Florida real estate company. The largest, for $50 million, went to an entity associated with Mount Airy, the Pennsylvania casino. The Main Street program is a new effort for the Fed, and it has gotten off to a rocky start. First announced in late March as part of the Fed’s broad pandemic response package, the program is meant to funnel loans to midsize businesses, especially those who are too big for government small-business loans but too small to tap stock and bond markets to raise money. The Fed is protected against losses on the loans by funding from the Treasury Department, money Congress earmarked to support the Fed’s emergency lending push in its coronavirus response legislation. Lawmakers have questioned why it took so long to get the program running — Main Street did not purchase its first loan until July 15 — and why so little of its $600 billion capacity is being used.

President Donald Trump said he’s “very seriously” considering a capital gains tax cut, a move he decided against last September after saying that it wouldn’t do enough to help the middle class, Bloomberg News reported. “We’re looking at also considering a capital gains tax cut, which would create a lot more jobs,” Trump said yesterday. The president can’t unilaterally cut the 20 percent long-term capital gains rate without Congress, but some advisers tell him he could issue an executive order that would slash tax bills for investors when they sell assets. The move, known as indexing capital gains to inflation, adjusts the original purchase price of an asset when it is sold so no tax is paid on appreciation tied to inflation. Revamping capital gains taxes through a rule or executive order likely would face legal challenges, a concern that reportedly prompted former President George H.W. Bush’s administration to drop a similar plan.

Eastman Kodak shares plummeted Monday after a federal agency put the brakes on the company’s deal to produce generic drug ingredients until “allegations of wrongdoing” are resolved, the Washington Post reported. Kodak closed yesterday at $10.52, down 29.3 percent. The stock has erased nearly 76 percent of its value since hitting $43.45 in late July. Last month, under an agreement aimed at reducing U.S. reliance on China, the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation (DFC) announced that it would give the photography pioneer a $765 million loan to retrofit its factories to make pharmaceutical ingredients. News of the deal — the first of its kind under the Defense Production Act — sent Kodak stock soaring. But last Tuesday, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) asked the Securities and Exchange Commission to launch an insider trading inquiry, citing an unusually high volume of trading activity. On July 27, a day before the loan was officially announced, more than 1 million shares of Kodak stock exchanged hands, roughly quadruple its daily average, she said in a letter to SEC Chairman Jay Clayton. The stock jumped 20 percent that day, she wrote, and more than 200 percent on July 28, when the loan was announced. The DFC hit pause Friday, announcing in a tweet that it would “not proceed any further unless these allegations are cleared.”

The head of the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) on Friday said that the agency faces a “dire” financial position even as it posted a slightly narrower third-quarter loss amid soaring package demand during the coronavirus pandemic, Reuters reported. Postmaster General Louis DeJoy said USPS has a “broken business model” and is in need of organizational changes. “Without dramatic change, there is no end in sight and we face an impending liquidity crisis,” DeJoy said. USPS said that quarterly revenue rose to $17.6 billion, up $547 million. The quarterly net loss shrank to $2.2 billion from $2.3 billion in the same quarter last year. First-class mail volume declined by 1.1 billion pieces, or 8.4 percent. Shipping and packages revenue increased by $2.9 billion, or 53.6 percent, on a volume increase of 708 million pieces, up 49.9 percent.

The world’s biggest coworking companies are starting to close money-losing locations across the globe, signaling an end to years of expansion in what had been one of real estate’s hottest sectors, the Wall Street Journal reported. The retreat reflects an effort to slash costs at a time when the coronavirus is reducing demand for office space, and perhaps for years to come. It also shows how bigger coworking firms, in a race to sign as many leases as possible and grab market share, overexpanded and became saddled with debt and expensive leases. The share of coworking spaces that have closed is still small. In the first half of the year, closures accounted for just 1.5 percent of the space occupied by flexible-office companies in the 20 biggest U.S. markets, according to CBRE Group Inc. Scott Homa, head of office research at brokerage JLL, says the impact has been modest partly because some operators have been able to get rent relief and because closing locations takes time. But JLL estimates that of the roughly 4,500 coworking locations in the U.S. a fifth, or about 25 million square feet, will likely close or change operators. IWG PLC, the world’s biggest flexible-office firm by number of locations, said recently that it had closed 32 locations in the first half of this year because of the coronavirus pandemic. The company plans to close around 100 locations in the second half of the year, or 4 percent of its total spaces, according to its chief executive, Mark Dixon.

The world’s biggest coworking companies are starting to close money-losing locations across the globe, signaling an end to years of expansion in what had been one of real estate’s hottest sectors, the Wall Street Journal reported. The retreat reflects an effort to slash costs at a time when the coronavirus is reducing demand for office space, and perhaps for years to come. It also shows how bigger coworking firms, in a race to sign as many leases as possible and grab market share, overexpanded and became saddled with debt and expensive leases. The share of coworking spaces that have closed is still small. In the first half of the year, closures accounted for just 1.5 percent of the space occupied by flexible-office companies in the 20 biggest U.S. markets, according to CBRE Group Inc. Scott Homa, head of office research at brokerage JLL, says the impact has been modest partly because some operators have been able to get rent relief and because closing locations takes time. But JLL estimates that of the roughly 4,500 coworking locations in the U.S. a fifth, or about 25 million square feet, will likely close or change operators. IWG PLC, the world’s biggest flexible-office firm by number of locations, said recently that it had closed 32 locations in the first half of this year because of the coronavirus pandemic. The company plans to close around 100 locations in the second half of the year, or 4 percent of its total spaces, according to its chief executive, Mark Dixon.