PANDEMIC AID | Need for Both Speed & Transparency

April 25, 2020—In the context of the Trump Administration's history of resisting oversight and the need for it, a letter from John Detrixhe of Quartz (hi@qz.com) says some wise things. I have excerpted below: 

President Donald Trump signed a bill to funnel an additional $310 billion into a fund for small businesses, after the first $350 billion flew out the door… In a crisis like this one, most experts say getting the money out quickly is more important than just about anything else. Even so, transparency matters. …
It’s easy to see how this bailout could go wrong. Shake Shack, the $2 billion burger chain, is giving back US money meant for small enterprises. … The Small Business Administration signaled that listed firms likely won’t be eligible for its next slug of money...
The fallout of these programs will outlive the loans. A decade ago, the $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program sparked widespread political upheaval: It was seen as a bailout for banks... This time around, the Federal Reserve, which resisted disclosing some borrowers during the financial crisis, say it will name names …
“This is more comparable to America’s response to World War II,” said Ben Koltun at Beacon Policy Advisors. “If this is poorly executed with a lack of transparency and fraud, it could create a serious backlash in the years to come.” These are choices every government is making, and transparency is barely an afterthought in some places. That could be dangerous.