'Credit crunch'

'Credit¹ crunch²' is an expression which has only recently become widespread. When is the first mention that Callum finds of it on the BBC website?
“信用紧缩”这个词今年来很流行。BBC网站何时第一次提及卡勒姆发明了这个词？
Callum:  Hello I’m Callum Robertson and with me today for 6 Minute English is Jackie Dalton – hello Jackie. 
Jackie:  Hello Callum. 
Callum:  Now Jackie, I’m going to play you something and I wonder if you can guess what is being talked about. This is Ian Macwhirter, who’s a political commentator³: 

Ian Macwhirter
The thing is that this is a bubble⁴, and all bubbles⁵ eventually burst, and when they burst a lot of people get hurt.
Jackie: Well you gave me a clue when you said that he’s a political commentator – so it’s something to do with politics …
Callum: Well yes and no, really – not exactly politics, but certainly politics are involved.
Jackie: Can I listen again?
Callum: Of course. Here’s Ian Macwhirter again

Ian Macwhirter
The thing is that this is a bubble, and all bubbles eventually burst, and when they burst a lot of people get hurt.
Jackie: Well I guess it’s to do with the economy and the one thing that comes to mind at the moment is the housing⁶ market.
Callum: Exactly right well done. He was talking about the state of the housing market in Britain. Can you explain what he means when he says ‘it’s a bubble and it’s going to burst’?
Jackie: The price of property in Britain has been growing very quickly for over a decade now. Prices have risen far far higher than salaries. So this increase in prices happened in a strong economic period, but now things are not so good in the economy and the prediction is that prices will fall again very quickly.
Callum: Exactly, I’m going to try and demonstrate⁷ this now. I have a balloon here, and as I start blowing it gets bigger, and bigger, and bigger but it can’t go on getting bigger for ever, at some point it becomes too big and it bursts. So that’s what’s happened to the housing market in Britain. Prices have got so high, they couldn’t get any higher and the bubble has burst – prices are coming down.
Jackie: You would think that would be good news because it means that houses would become cheaper, more affordable⁸.
Callum: It’s good if you want to buy, but for those who want to sell it means their house might not be worth as much as they paid for it – this can lead to a lot of financial difficulty – the hurt that Ian Macwhirter referred to. This situation is known as ‘negative equity⁹’, ‘negative equity’. Effectively this means your property is worth less than you paid for it. Ian Macwhirter had a warning about this – but who was his warning for, listen and find out.

Ian Macwhirter
I think particularly first time buyers really need to be warned that if you buy anywhere now you'll be in negative equity within about a year, eighteen months.
Callum: So Jackie, who needs to be careful.
Jackie: Well he talked there about ‘first-time buyers’. ‘First-time buyers’. A first-time buyer is someone who hasn’t owned a property before and so therefore is buying a house for the first time.
Callum: That’s right, lets’ listen to Ian Macwhirter again

Ian Macwhirter
I think particularly first time buyers really need to be warned that if you buy anywhere now you'll be in negative equity within about a year, eighteen months.
Callum: So Jackie, talking about this issue, what about you? Do you own a house or do you rent?
Jackie: I rent, I would love to be able to own a house but as we know in London it’s very very very expensive and it’s actually hard to buy your first house.
Callum: It is, it’s very hard and it’s very difficult to get that first ‘rung’ on the ‘property ladder’. Now the ‘property ladder’ is what everybody talks about. What does that mean?
Jackie: It’s kind of the idea that once you’ve bought your first house, after that, if you want to move again, you’re going to need extra money to buy a nicer house. So once you’ve bought your first one you can sell that, take the money from it and move up into a bigger or nicer house which costs more money.
Callum: Yep, so it’s like a ladder, you keep going up and up and up. But it’s very difficult to get that first step on to the property ladder.
Now one thing that people are talking a lot about this moment, it’s like a new expression that’s come into the language, and it’s the ‘credit crunch’. Have you heard this expression Jackie?
Jackie: Yes, it’s been on the news all the time, hasn’t it?
Callum: Absolutely, you can’t listen to a programme, you can’t turn over a newspaper without seeing the expression ‘credit crunch’. What does it mean though?
Jackie: Well a ‘credit crunch’ is a period when it’s very difficult to get credit and the interest rates are very high because the banks are scared of losing money. So it’s not really a new phenomenon but the term is very new in everyday vocabulary.
Callum: I did a search of the BBC website and Jackie, when do you think the first use of this term I came across was? Was it in January 2007, June 2007 or December 2007?
Jackie: I think I can make a good guess at this one. I think it was June 2007 because that’s when this all started up again and it became big in the news.
Callum: Exactly, well done. The answer is indeed June 2007. Now that won’t be the first time that term was ever used, but it was the first reference¹⁰ to it that I could find on the BBC website! Maybe you can find an earlier one. It did exist as a term known and used by economists¹¹ but now everyone knows it. It’s like a new expression that’s been born in our lifetime! And as you said it does seem to be in the headlines everyday.
Well that’s all the time we have time for this programme, but do join us again for another 6 Minute English soon. Goodbye
Jackie:Goodbye. (本文由在线英语听力室整理编辑)

1 credit   

n.信用，荣誉，贷款，学分；v.归功于，赞颂，信任

参考例句：

• I credit him with a certain amount of sense.我认为他有一定的见识。
• He got the credit,and we did the dirty work.他得荣誉，我们做不讨好的工作。

2 crunch   

n.关键时刻；艰难局面；v.发出碎裂声

参考例句：

• If it comes to the crunch they'll support us.关键时刻他们是会支持我们的。
• People who crunch nuts at the movies can be very annoying.看电影时嘎吱作声地嚼干果的人会使人十分讨厌。

3 commentator   

n.注释者，解说者；实况广播评论员

参考例句：

• He is a good commentator because he can get across the game.他能简单地解说这场比赛，是个好的解说者。
• The commentator made a big mistake during the live broadcast.在直播节目中评论员犯了个大错误。

4 bubble   

n.泡，水泡，气泡；泡影，妄想；v.(使)起泡

参考例句：

• The water begins to bubble.水开始起泡了。
• Their hopes of success have burst like a bubble.他们成功的希望已经成了泡影。

5 bubbles   

泡( bubble的名词复数 )； 泡影； 肥皂泡； （欲表达的）一点感情

参考例句：

• Bubbles are rising from the bottom of the boiling water. 水泡从沸水的底部升到水面。
• The incorporation of air bubbles in the glass spoiled it. 玻璃含有气泡，使它质量降低。

6 housing   

n.房屋，住宅；住房建筑；外壳，外罩

参考例句：

• Do you think our housing sales will turn around during this year?你认为今年我们的住宅销路会好转吗？
• The housing sales have been turning down since the summer.入夏以来，房屋的销售量日趋减少。

7 demonstrate   

vt.论证，证明；示范；显示；vi.示威游行

参考例句：

• Let me demonstrate to you how this machine works.我给你演示一下这台机器的运转情况。
• How can I demonstrate to you that my story is true?我怎样才能向你证明我的话是真实的呢？

8 affordable   

adj.支付得起的，不太昂贵的

参考例句：

• The rent for the four-roomed house is affordable.四居室房屋的房租付得起。
• There are few affordable apartments in big cities.在大城市中没有几所公寓是便宜的。

9 equity   

n.公正，公平，（无固定利息的）股票

参考例句：

• They shared the work of the house with equity.他们公平地分担家务。
• To capture his equity,Murphy must either sell or refinance.要获得资产净值，墨菲必须出售或者重新融资。

10 reference   

n.提到，说到，暗示，查看，查阅

参考例句：

• We spent days going through all related reference material.我们花了好多天功夫查阅所有有关的参考资料。
• I like to have my reference books within my reach.我喜欢把参考书放到伸手可取的地方。

11 economists   

n.经济学家，经济专家( economist的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The sudden rise in share prices has confounded economists. 股价的突然上涨使经济学家大惑不解。
• Foreign bankers and economists cautiously welcomed the minister's initiative. 外国银行家和经济学家对部长的倡议反应谨慎。 来自《简明英汉词典》