In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, the financial and legal system will need to deal with a surge of financial distress in the business sector. Some firms will be able to survive, while others will face bankruptcy and thus need to be liquidated or reorganized. Many surviving firms will need to be downsized or acquired. In normal times, this triage is supported by the court system, banks, and financial markets. The goal of this paper is to size up the coming surge of financial distress, list the challenges it presents in the current environment, and offer potential policy solutions. Overall, our analysis suggests that the two key issues will be court congestion and excess liquidation and failure of small firms.

在 COVID-19 大流行之后，金融和法律系统将需要应对商业部门的大量财务困境。一些公司将能够生存，而另一些公司将面临破产，因此需要清算或重组。许多幸存的公司将需要缩小规模或被收购。在正常情况下，这种分类得到法院系统、银行和金融市场的支持。本文的目标是评估即将到来的金融危机浪潮，列出它在当前环境中带来的挑战，并提供潜在的政策解决方案。总的来说，我们的分析表明，两个关键问题将是法院拥堵和过度清算以及小公司的倒闭。