Less than a dozen years after the bailouts of the Great Recession, airlines, hotels and a long list of others come calling.
When airline executives realized a few years ago that they could charge passengers extra fees for just about anything — meals, checking bags, even choosing seats — their businesses seemed bulletproof.
“I don’t think we’re ever going to lose money again,” American Airlines chief executive Doug Parker told giddy investors in 2017. As such companies continued to thrive, they also undertook share buybacks, boosting investor value. President Trump and congressional Republicans sweetened the outlook for big businesses further when they passed a $1.5 trillion tax cut that slashed the corporate rate beginning in 2018.
That seems so long ago. Now airlines, hotels, cruise lines, coal-mining companies and others strangled by coronavirus shutdowns are lining up to receive slices of a $2 trillion aid package funded by taxpayers. Continue reading.