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.
Restaurant inflation was up 8.8 percent from a year ago in March, according to the latest consumer price index, and customers say they're more carefully considering their culinary spending. Cheddar News correspondent Ashley Mastronardi visited Isabelle's Osteria in midtown Manhattan to ask patrons how the higher prices are impacting their wallets.
Longtime CNN host Don Lemon is out at the cable news network a little over two months after apologizing to viewers for on-air comments about Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley, CNN announced Monday.
The SAG-AFTRA National Board over the weekend voted unanimously to express solidarity with the Writers Guild of America and its plans to go on strike amid ongoing negotiations with studios and streamers.
Lila Snyder, CEO of Bose, joins Cheddar News anchor Hena Doba to discuss her journey to the top of the corporate world, the business of selling top of the line speakers, and how new technologies such as machine learning are shaking up the industry.
Stocks drifted ahead of reports that could offer clues on questions that have kept Wall Street at a standstill, including on where the economy and corporate profits are heading.
