Chaos for Small Businesses Seeking Loans

The online application portal for a program to aid U.S. companies hit by the pandemic crashed minutes after opening on Monday.  It remained inaccessible for much of the day. This was the second time in a month that the relief effort, the Paycheck Protection Program, has encountered problems. After $342 billion in initial funding ran out in under two weeks, Congress approved an additional $310 billion. The government agency that runs the program, the Small Business Administration, said in a message to lenders that “unprecedented demand” was slowing the portal’s response. Source: New York Times, 4/28/20