Thread by @BharatRamamurti

The major changes announced today mirror the top requests of the oil and gas industry.

That raises questions about how the changes promote the broader public interest -- especially when these companies will still have no real obligation to retain or rehire their workers. 1/

https://twitter.com/federalreserve/status/1255859971230765057

First change: The Fed originally said companies couldn’t use generous taxpayer-backed loans to refinance existing debt. Today, it said companies could.

Here’s an oil and gas lobbying group asking for that exact change two weeks ago. 2/

files.constantcontact.com/8df2ce19301/1f…

Second change: The Fed originally said the maximum loan was $150 million. Today, it said it would be $200 million.

Here’s the Energy Secretary saying two weeks ago the loans needed to be at least $200 million to help oil and gas companies. 3/

nytimes.com/reuters/2020/0…

Third change: The Fed originally set a strict limit on how indebted a company could be to get a loan. Today, it dramatically weakened that limit.

Here’s a letter describing the original limit as a problem for oil and gas companies. 4/

cruz.senate.gov/files/document…

Here’s one change the Treasury and the Fed didn’t make: they didn’t create any meaningful requirement that companies that get taxpayer-backed loans keep workers on payroll. They also didn’t add any requirement that those companies try to rehire workers they’ve already fired. 5/

The Fed and the Treasury should be transparent about why they made these changes today -- and rejected others that were focused on trying to keep workers employed or get them back on payroll. END