How would loans help? A lot of employees aren't currently needed so they will be laid off regardless of whether the business owner can take out cheap loans. I don't see how loans can make up for the much reduced economic activity.
I imagine the WSJ Editorial Board is focusing on a solution to keep businesses surviving, not employment. They may have other ideas to help with that later. Without businesses, there will be no employment.
The economy is an engine that isn't allowed to stop or it will break. The idea behind loans is that you force the engine to keep turning through external support. Yes this is obviously a money losing strategy but the value of the engine is much higher than the cost of keeping it running during the pandemic.
