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ALTAMONTE SPRINGS – Congress should shift public policy to put more emphasis on small business in America if the U.S. economy is to improve quickly, says one Central Florida financial expert.

Christopher G. Hurn, chief executive officer of Mercantile Capital Corp. of Altamonte Springs, which ranks as one of the largest providers of U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) 504 loans in the nation, said U.S. economic stimulus efforts so far have gone almost exclusively to big banks and big business.

“Small business in the U.S. economic stimulus funds, when small businesses create more new jobs and more new economic activity than all other economic activity than all other economic sectors put together,” Hurn said.

Hurn said many small businesses are the unsung heroes of the recession.

“Time after time we’re dealing with small businesses that are performing despite the worst of the economic trends,” Hurn said. “Instead of closing their doors, they are showing income statements with slight downward trends, and in this economy that’s heroic,” Hurn explained.

But that’s a problem, Hurn said. Lenders want to see increasing revenues and profits. Holding the line may be heroic in a staggering economy, but it won’t convince banks to lend them the capital they need to grown, and create more jobs.

“We need public policy in Washington to ease some of the restrictions to getting capital flowing again . . . to allow people who have done pretty well during this recession to tap some of their embedded equity in their property for instance,” Hurn said.