Long-term Debt Markets

The English word credit comes from the Latin word credit which is the third-person (singular present active) of the verb credo which means to believe. For example, ut omnes qui credit in eum means all those that believe in him. This is also how we get the English word creed. So when you spend on your credit card, the credit card company believes in you—that you will pay the money back. Similarly when we refer to Credit Markets we are referring to markets where one party lends to another.

One credit market is the market for debt securities with a maturity greater than one year. We'll call this the debt market. Note, debt securities with a maturity of less than one year belong to the money market.

As the verb to believe implies, debt securities represent promises to repay, and nothing more. They do not represent ownership or control.