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Interest free microloans might be exactly what is needed to keep these businesses viable. The ability to spread out the impact over a year could be critical. This might not be enough, but it's good. Better is better.

There are a variety of reasons why letting the restaurant go under is really inefficient for everyone. The overhead of shutting down one business and starting another adds up to waste.

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It all depends on how long the shutdown goes for. If it is a couple of weeks then yes a micro loan makes sense, but if this is something that goes on for many months then not so much.

My guess is these business are just going to sit there empty and the cost of restarting should be low. If the restauranters have the money (provided by their loyal customers) they will probably go straight back into the same location where they were.

The other factor to consider is even once the restrictions are lifted it is likely that we will be in a deep recession/depression. I can’t see there being huge demand for eating out when everyone is broke.

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