Credit crunch spreads to China's "Main Street."

Despite efforts by the People's Bank of China to ease the credit crunch in the country's financial markets, the WSJ finds anecdotal evidence that the liquidity squeeze has spread to the wider economy. As a result, companies have increasingly used bankers' acceptances, which are short-term bank-issued guarantees, to pay their bills instead of cash. The acceptances are "relatively easy to get as they don't show up on banks' balance sheet," says a purchasing manager.