April 21, 2020

Anna Murray 

The US economy has been deeply damaged under lockdown by the Coronavirus pandemic. Businesses in the hotel, restaurant, and retail industries have suffered among the hardest-hit.

Earlier US President Donald Trump and his administration announced a 2.2 trillion aid package to tackle the impact of the Coronavirus lockdown. In particular, the Small Business Administration (SBA), a US government agency that provides support to small businesses and entrepreneurs, plays a major role in granting 342 billion bailout fund, namely the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), to help small businesses to keep employees on the payroll.

Soon in mid-April, the $350 billion PPP program ran out of emergency funding for small businesses. Some critics disagree with large corporations to apply the fund and argue only a few small businesses have received the bailout fund.

Most recently, Randy Garutti, chief executive officer of  a burger chain, Shake Shack, and its founder Danny Meyer announced to return 10 million government loan it received from the US government’s aid package.

On April 21, the US government approved another $310 billion to the PPP to assure small businesses keeping workers on their payrolls.

Photo:Webshot.