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Getting 2.2 trillion from the CARES Act to people who need PPP and unemployment. : Planet Money Unemployment offices and small banks are getting money from the government to the people who need it. But it's like trying to smoosh a fifty foot pile of money through a ten foot hole. | Subscribe to our weekly newsletter here.

Planet Money

How To Get Trillions To Millions

How To Get Trillions To Millions

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UNITED STATES - APRIL 2: The U.S. Department of Labor building is pictured in Washington on Thursday, April 2, 2020. (Photo by Caroline Brehman/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)
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Caroline Brehman/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Imag
UNITED STATES - APRIL 2: The U.S. Department of Labor building is pictured in Washington on Thursday, April 2, 2020. (Photo by Caroline Brehman/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)
Caroline Brehman/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Imag

Congress passed the $2.2 trillion dollar CARES act two months ago, yet a lot of people are still waiting for relief — small businesses too. And between those $2.2 trillion dollars and the people who need it are state unemployment offices operating on shoestring budgets and small banks trying to process millions of loans they've never dealt with before.

This episode — two stories from Planet Money's sibling podcast, The Indicator. Two looks inside the systems that have sprung up to push heaps of money from the government to people who need cash. We may even feel sorry for some bankers. Just a little.

Music: "Polar Chill" and "Drop Electric."

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