When small businesses get loans they... buy property?

BY offering cheap loans to small businesses, governments reason, entrepreneurs will continue to pay their employees. That should halt the economic fallout from the coronavirus outbreak. But so far, this endeavour has been a public relations fiasco and a logistics nightmare.

In the United States, mom-and-pop businesses are having a tough time getting their hands on stimulus loans, which turn into grants if the money is spent on salaries. Meanwhile, bigger companies such as Shake Shack Inc found administrative loopholes to receive millions (since returned), and even hedge funds and private equity firms want a slice of the US$350bil offered by the Small Business Administration, a pool that’s already run dry.