Insolvency and the pandemic
Business Daily
BBC
4.4 • 816 Ratings
🗓️ 26 May 2022
⏱️ 19 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
During the coronavirus pandemic governments around the world pumped billions into their economies. Propping up businesses and trying to make sure people stayed in work.
Sam Fenwick looks into what actually happened to all that money and whether it really did help keep businesses afloat during repeated lockdowns and restrictions.
Nick Hood is an business insolvency expert with a company called Opus Restructuring – he helped us interrogate data held by all the major world economies on insolvencies.
Sam also speaks to a business owner who was forced to close and declare bankruptcy during the pandemic despite financial help and another who was able to restructure and expand thanks to a government scheme.
Presenter / Producer: Sam Fenwick Image: Closed sign; Credit: Getty
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | I had this secret. |
| 0:02.9 | I robbed banks in my spare time. |
| 0:06.4 | Lives Less Ordinary from the BBC World Service. |
| 0:09.4 | This is not a good thing to do because police are after you. |
| 0:14.9 | Find out more at the end of this podcast. |
| 0:26.0 | All residents stay at home, orders the police. |
| 0:32.8 | March 10th, 2020, and Italy has got into lockdown to try and contain the spread of coronavirus. |
| 0:35.5 | A day later, this happens. |
| 0:44.2 | WHO has been assessing this outbreak around the clock and we're deeply concerned. |
| 0:52.6 | We have therefore made the assessment that COVID-19 can be characterized as a pandemic. |
| 0:55.1 | What followed was unprecedented. |
| 0:57.1 | Governments around the world pumped billions into their economies, |
| 0:59.7 | propping up businesses |
| 1:00.7 | to try and make sure people stayed in work. |
| 1:03.9 | Today I am officially declaring a national emergency. |
| 1:08.6 | Two very big words. |
| 1:10.8 | The action I am taking will open up access to up to $50 billion |
| 1:15.6 | of very importantly, very important and a large amount of money for states and territories and |
| 1:24.9 | localities in our shared fight against this disease. |
| 1:29.5 | I'm Sam Fenwick, |
| 1:30.9 | and today on Business Daily from the BBC World Service, |
| 1:34.5 | we're going to try and find out what happened to all that money |
... |
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