Weekend edition—Bailout investigations, art heist, zombie satellites

Good morning, Quartz readers! Government officials worldwide are shoveling out more than $5 trillion to prevent their countries from dropping into an economic black hole. It’s time to find out who is getting the money. The need for government suppo [Quartz]( Good morning, Quartz readers! Government officials worldwide are shoveling out [more than $5 trillion]( to prevent their countries from dropping into an economic black hole. It’s time to find out who is getting the money. The need for government support is off the charts. In the US yesterday, president Donald Trump [signed a bill]( to funnel an additional $310 billion into a fund for small businesses, after the first $350 billion flew out the door [in 14 days](. In the UK, [185,000 companies]( submitted claims for a job-retention scheme during the first 24 hours. The Swiss government had to [double the size]( of a credit program for businesses. In a crisis like this one, most experts say getting the money out quickly is more important than just about anything else. Even so, transparency matters—the knowledge that names will be named could help prevent abuse of hastily created emergency programs. It’s easy to see how this bailout could go wrong. Shake Shack, the $2 billion burger chain, is [giving back US money]( meant for small enterprises. That seems fitting, as publicly listed companies can access institutional financing, whereas tiny operators may have access only to friends and family. The Small Business Administration signaled that listed firms likely [won’t be eligible]( for its next slug of money and opened the door for big companies to give back taxpayer funds. The fallout of these programs will outlive the loans. A decade ago, the $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program sparked widespread political upheaval: It was seen as a bailout for banks that protected investment bankers while regular workers suffered. This time around, the Federal Reserve, which [resisted disclosing some borrowers]( during the financial crisis, [says it will name names]( and more for each of its emergency lending facilities. “As big as the response in 2008 and 2009 was, this response is so many times larger—this is more comparable to America’s response to World War II,” said Ben Koltun at Beacon Policy Advisors. “If this is poorly executed with a lack of transparency and fraud, it could create a serious backlash in the years to come.” These are choices every government is making, and transparency is barely an afterthought in some places. That could be dangerous—if recent history is any guide, a lack of oversight could cause even more damage to society. —[John Detrixhe]( future of finance reporter Looking for a calm, rational, even curious approach to coronavirus? We’ve got an email for that. [Sign up]( for a look at how an epidemic affects the health of the global economy. FIVE THINGS ON QUARTZ WE ESPECIALLY LIKED Finding the real-life Thomas Crown. Incredibly, this isn’t a movie plot: A Van Gogh was stolen in a late-night smash-and-grab job. The most obvious suspect says he’s retired from the art heist game. So whodunit? Justin Rohrlich and Max de Haldevang [take us on a wild ride]( (✦ Quartz member exclusive) through a world inhabited by thieves, drug traffickers, counterfeiters, rich gangsters, art detectives, museum security, and insurance companies. My question is, who will option this article for the screen? —[Holly Ojalvo]( talent lab editor A risky investment for the sake of public health. A coronavirus vaccine is likely years away. But the US government and pharma companies are already pouring money into producing experimental vaccine candidates at scale. [Olivia Goldhill explains why]( ramping up production now, at a potential loss of hundreds of millions of dollars, is still necessary to ensure adequate supply of a vaccine if one proves successful. —[Katie Palmer]( science and health editor An adoptee returns to her birth country. What does it mean to feel at home? That’s the central question in [Tori Smith’s moving personal essay]( about visiting South Korea for the first time after being adopted as a baby by a white American family. Her writing made me reflect on the universal desire to feel a sense of belonging—and its vivid travel details left me eager to visit South Korea myself. —[Sarah Todd]( senior reporter What if .01% of India has Covid-19? That would be nearly 135,000 cases, which is over 50% more than the number of cases in China. The writers of [this math-heavy piece]( (also good for brushing up on probability and statistics) are not saying India has that many cases, but something more alarming: With the current levels of testing in the country, India would more likely than not fail to detect any of those individuals, if they were infected. —[Diksha Madhok]( director and editor of Quartz platform India Baseball is back! Sort of. While Major League Baseball in the US is still postponed, fans of the sport are tuning into the Taiwanese baseball league, which began its season April 12. There are only four teams, and spectators have been replaced by cardboard cutouts and mannequins. But as [Isabella Steger reports]( the game has proven so popular with baseball-deprived Americans the league is now broadcasting in English. —[Oliver Staley]( culture and lifestyle editor QUARTZ MEMBERSHIP Where are drugs made? A bottle of drugs with an American label may be distributed by a US-based company, but the starting chemicals that make the drug effective often come from one country—China. This reliance on China has long been a concern, but the world had largely accepted the trade-off between consolidation risks and cost. [Until Covid-19](. FIVE THINGS ELSEWHERE THAT MADE US SMARTER Hunting zombie satellites. When retirement comes, some spacecraft orbiting our planet don’t go quietly into that good night. They remain lost in orbit, sending signals to no one—except for dedicated amateur trackers like Scott Tilley, who found a missing NASA probe in 2018 and likes to listen to a 50-year-old nuclear Navy satellite “sing.” Now, Tilley has found the oldest functioning satellite in geostationary orbit, and, as [NPR reports]( it may still have some secrets. —[Tim Fernholz]( senior reporter Germany’s scientist in chief. Angela Merkel had been politically sidelined by populists in her own country and autocrats abroad, but during the pandemic her cautious, analytical approach has been a welcome asset, as [Saskia Miller writes]( in the Atlantic. Before entering politics, the German chancellor worked as a research scientist and earned a doctorate in quantum chemistry. It shows. Her honest, informed communication about Covid-19 helps explain the relatively calm situation in Germany today. —[Steve Mollman]( weekend editor Easing standards for coronavirus research has consequences. We’re all desperate for good news these days, so it’s no surprise that we eagerly jump on the positive results of any Covid-19 treatment study, no matter how preliminary or incomplete. But as [Christie Aschwanden writes]( for Wired, sacrificing rigor for speed won’t necessarily help us beat the disease any faster—and could end up setting back legitimate studies. —[Liz Webber]( senior news curator Rap’s racial divide in France. At last month’s Victoires de la Musique, France’s equivalent of the Grammys, not one of the black or Arab rappers tearing up the charts for the last year was nominated in an album, artist, or song category. For the Guardian, Michael Oliver learns how senior figures in France’s music business [have actively worked to stymie]( the recognition of the country’s most popular genre. This story covers some of the same travails of US hip hop 30 years ago, perhaps worse. —[Yinka Adegoke]( Africa editor Closing time for an East Village institution. In the New York Times, Gabrielle Hamilton [shares the heartbreaking last moments]( of Prune, her restaurant of 20 years. Hers isn’t just the story of how a small, beloved business was felled by the pandemic, but also of how the coronavirus is giving the final blow to any number of stellar restaurants like it. It is a lyrical eulogy of the New York from which Prune arose: warm and scrappy, where bohemian dreams could thrive. —[Annalisa Merelli]( geopolitics reporter Our best wishes for a relaxing but thought-filled weekend. Please send any news, comments, baseball-fan mannequins, and scientifically literate politicians to hi@qz.com. Get the most out of Quartz by[downloading our app]( and[becoming a member](. Today’s Weekend Brief was brought to you by Steve Mollman and Kira Bindrim [facebook]( [twitter]( [external-link]( Enjoying Quartz Daily Brief? Forward it to a friend! They can [click here]( to sign up. If you’re looking to unsubscribe, [click here](. Quartz | 675 Avenue of the Americas, 4th Fl | New York, NY 10011 | United States Copyright © 2020 Quartz, All rights reserved.