July 2020

So the Cares Act is beginning to unwind. In fact, without an act of Congress it ends July 31st. Will the economy unwind with it? As the Cares Act unwinds in just the next day or so, is the economy going to unwind with it? We know July 31st the unemployment benefit of additional $600 is expiring. Now there is an interim proposal to keep it going until a negotiated settlement has been reached. I think the Republicans would like to continue the unemployment benefit, but with just an additional $200 instead of $600. And the other issue is evictions. There's been a moratorium on evictions for all properties that are backed by a government-subsidized loan - Freddie Mac, Fannie Mae, all of those. That has actually already hit the sunset provision. Again, if they don't extend it, will there be massive evictions as well as the loss of unemployment...

Probably everybody at the airline knows now that there's a letter of agreement for voluntary pilot separation leave. It's a pretty interesting deal. Is this something that you should take? A couple of pointers about this offer. I mean, I'm not going to go through the whole thing. We'll put a link to it (see below), but the briefings that ALPA’s sent out are pretty darn good, but there are some relevant salient points. One, the pain effect, is when you bid for the package. Why is that salient? The next year it's going to be ugly. Pay cuts may actually happen, or maybe a reduction in the guarantee. And if there's a reduction in the guarantee, for example, then that brings the guarantee down to maybe 60, 61 hours if it's a 15% reduction. That kind of reduction, that's only a 10-hour spread for working versus not working. Also,...