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“ ‘It’s an economic war.’ ”
Billionaire Warren Buffett on Tuesday used the bully pulpit that comes with being arguably the world’s best-known investor to urge U.S. lawmakers to drag an aid plan for hard-hit small businesses across the finish line.
In an interview with CNBC, the chairman and chief executive of Berkshire Hathaway Inc. BRK.A, +0.19% BRKB, -0.48% said a renewal of the Paycheck Protection Program, or PPP, was necessary to protect small businesses and their employees, who had become “collateral damage” in the effort to contain the COVID-19 pandemic.
“When we went into World War II, a lot of industries were shut down — everything went to the defense production. Well, we’ve shut down a lot of people in this particular induced recession and others are prospering,” Buffett said.
Negotiations on another economic relief package are ongoing Tuesday on Capitol Hill. A bipartisan group of lawmakers from the House and Senate late Monday offered a pair of bills that separated the more contentious issues — aid to state and local governments and business liability protections — from more popular measures aimed at supporting businesses and workers.
Those measures include the politically popular PPP. The bipartisan proposal would revive the program with $300 billion available to establishments seeking a second round of aid. Also, the forgiveness process for loans of $150,000 or less would be simplified.
Stocks were buoyed Tuesday, with gains attributed in part to optimism around prospects for an aid plan. The Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA, +0.36% was up around 71 points, or 0.2%, while the S&P 500 SPX, +0.44% gained 0.5%.
