Inside the Frenzied Launch of the PPP Loan Program (Podcast)

The first loan approved through the Small Business Administration’s Paycheck Protection Program went out the door just one week after the program was created last spring.

At the time, with the pandemic shutting down nearly the entire country, the economic devastation looked like it could be limitless. The PPP was designed to help small business owners survive, offering government-backed loans that could be entirely forgiven if used to cover payroll and other approved business expenses.

As the head of the SBA’s Office of Capital Access, Bill Briggs was right in the eye of this hurricane. Briggs joins this week’s ...