In the Middle Ages, before modern banking and credit instruments, people saved money at home, a few coins at a time dropped into a jar or dish.

中世纪时期，现代银行和信用工具出现之前，人们在家里存钱，一次丢几个硬币到罐子或盘子里。

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Credit instruments take a great variety of forms.

信用票据有各种各样的形式。

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Market-risk teams saw them as credit instruments, since the underlying assets were loans.

而市场风险小组认为它们是信用工具，因为这些产品的基础资产是贷款。

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And if a lack of liquidity is the problem in some credit instruments, the Fed's direct purchase of those assets should contribute to a credit thaw.

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Remember, those were the pseudo insurance policies that a lot of financial institutions bought to protect themselves from mortgage-backed securities and other credit instruments in case they went south.

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The Fed purchases, expected to extend through the first half of the year and to broaden to more assets, will cause sellers to substitute slightly riskier, longer maturity credit instruments.

FORBES: Magazine Article