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.
On Tuesday, the Writer’s Guild of America (WGA) kicked off its first strike in 16 years. Cheddar News' field reporter Ashley Mastronardi spoke with some of those picketing writers who said streaming giants need to catch up with the times and offer a higher wage and a bigger cut of residuals.
Airbnb is making a renewed push into renting single rooms in a nod to its beginnings and a realization that renting an entire house is too expensive for many travelers, especially younger ones.
Poised to raise interest rates Wednesday for a 10th time, Federal Reserve officials are facing two competing economic trends that could make their future rate decisions more difficult and treacherous.
