“The board is set. The pieces are moving. We come to it at last.”

With these words, Gandalf the White acknowledged that the decisive battle for control over Middle Earth had been joined.[i]

So it is now for the U.S. Presidential election scheduled for November 3, with both major parties having identified their respective

Bad Times

Of course, you’ve noticed that we’re in the midst of an economic mess. The nearly complete shutdown of large segments of the U.S. economy beginning in March, in response to the COVID-19 crisis, both accelerated and greatly aggravated the recession toward which we were already heading after almost ten years of steady growth.

The Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (“CARES”) Act became law[i] on March 27, 2020. Almost immediately, “small” businesses[ii] from every industry – including real estate – began the process of determining whether they would be eligible for the forgivable, unsecured, non-recourse loans to be made under the Paycheck Protection Program, which is