By Martin Crutsinger
The Federal Reserve announced Thursday that it was expanding a major lending program to provide support for businesses struggling to cope with the economic slowdown caused by the coronavirus pandemic.
The Fed said that it was expanding the scope and eligibility of its Main Street Lending Program which is designed to provide up to $600 billion in loans to small and mid-size businesses that have been harmed by the pandemic and the efforts to contain it.
The Fed said it was allowing businesses with up to 15,000 employees and $5 billion in annual revenues to qualify for loans. That is up from earlier limit of 10,000 employees and $2.5 billion in revenue.
The minimum loan size is being reduced to $500,000, down from an original minimum loan size of $1 million.
This support program, one of many the Fed has unveiled over the past two months, is designed to provide businesses with loans of up to four years from banks at below-market interest rates. Unlike a separate program being run by the Small Business Administration, the loans from the Fed must be repaid but payments can be deferred for one year.
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A jury in Illinois has ordered Chicago-based Conagra Brands to pay $7.1 million to a Pennsylvania woman who was badly injured in 2017 when a can of commercial brand cooking spray ignited in a kitchen at her workplace and set her aflame.
Most Americans are in the middle-income brackets, but they aren't leveraging higher interest rates for savings, according to a new survey.
Job openings rose to 9.6 million in September while the private sector added 113,000 new jobs in October.
The Federal Reserve kept its key short-term interest rate unchanged Wednesday for a second straight time but left the door open to further rate hikes if inflation pressures should accelerate in the months ahead.
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Can money really buy happiness? Grant Gallagher, associate vice president and head of financial well-being with Affinity Federal Credit Union, joined Cheddar News to explain which steps to take for financial security and safety.
SAG-AFTRA will meet again with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers to discuss putting an end to the ongoing strike.
Italian car maker Fiat is opening an apartment building in Fort Lee, New Jersey.
Actress Sarah Michelle Gellar has teamed up with Fidelity to set kids up for success.
