Happy Monday and welcome back to On The Money. I’m Sylvan Lane, and here’s your nightly guide to everything affecting your bills, bank account and bottom line.
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THE BIG DEAL—Small businesses falling behind in economic recovery: An unprecedented flood of federal support may have helped larger companies stay afloat, but small businesses and poor households continue to face severe economic pain, suggesting the recovery from the coronavirus-fueled recession will be slow and uneven.
The federal government has deployed trillions of dollars in economic rescue through direct financial aid approved by Congress and emergency loans and asset purchases by the Federal Reserve. The record-shattering price tag of the coronavirus recession response is widely credited for keeping financial markets stable and halting the free fall of the broader economy.
But many smaller firms — and the typically low-wage workers who depend on them — have fallen through the cracks despite federal programs intended to help them, prompting concerns from policymakers that they will be left behind in any economic recovery. I explain why here.
LEADING THE DAY
Supreme Court rules SEC may seize profits from fraudulent companies: The Supreme Court on Monday upheld the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) practice of seeking to seize profits obtained illegally from fraudulent companies.
In a 8-1 decision, the justices ruled that the SEC can force defendants in court to hand over their net profits obtained from wrongdoing as restitution to any victims who were defrauded.
Still, the decision, authored by Justice Sonia Sotomayor, limits the SEC’s authority to seize such profits, ruling that the agency can’t seek more than the amount of net income generated through a fraudulent scheme and should use the funds to provide relief for victims.
The Hill’s Harper Neidig breaks down the decision here.
Trump’s steel tariffs survive challenge: The Supreme Court also on Monday declined to take up a case challenging President Trump’s 25 percent tariffs on imported steel products, meaning they will remain in effect.
- The court denied a petition from the American Institute for International Steel (AIIS), a trade association representing steel importers and users of imported steel products.
- Trump in 2018 imposed a tariff of 25 percent on steel imports, as well as a 10 percent tariff on aluminum imports.
- The tariffs were imposed under Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962, which allows the president to impose tariffs for national security purposes.
The AIIS argued in its petition to the Supreme Court that the steel tariffs are invalid because Section 232 “unconstitutionally delegates legislative power to the President.” But the Trump administration argued that the Supreme Court rejected a similar challenge to Section 232 in a 1976 opinion.
Top Democrats: Trump administration’s plan for PPP disclosure ‘inadequate‘ Three House Democratic committee chairs on Monday criticized the Trump administration’s announcement that it will release certain information about Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loan recipients, saying that the planned disclosures are insufficient.
“With this announcement, Treasury and [the Small Business Administration] have agreed to a minimum level of transparency, but still fall short of taxpayers’ expectations,” House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Richard Neal (D-Mass.), Financial Services Committee Chairwoman Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) and Small Business Committee Chairwoman Nydia Velázquez (D-N.Y.) said in a joint statement.
- Treasury and the Small Business Administration (SBA) announced Friday that they will release information about the business names, locations, industries, business types and demographic data of recipients of PPP loans of at least $150,000. The disclosure will reveal a range for the loan amount doled out to recipients.
- For loans less than $150,000, the SBA will release totals aggregated by industry, ZIP code, industry, business type and demographic characteristics.
The Hill’s Naomi Jagoda has more here.
GOOD TO KNOW
- President Trump on Monday signed an executive order to suspend the issuance of certain temporary worker visas through the end of 2020, cracking down further on immigration after signing a more narrow measure in April.
- Republicans are betting on the economy as they try to hold on to the Senate and the White House in November.
- Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) said on Monday that he will not return a blue slip if the administration nominates Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Jay Clayton to be the next U.S. attorney for Manhattan.
- The Supreme Court on Monday declined to take up a technology company’s challenge to IRS regulations issued in 2003, letting stand a lower court’s ruling that will require companies to pay billions of dollars more in taxes.
- Home sales in the U.S. have fallen to their lowest level in nearly 10 years.
- Swiss bank UBS Group AG said Monday that as much as one-third of its staff could work from home permanently after the coronavirus pandemic eases.