Late Monday, Delta Air Lines (NYSE: DAL) announced it raised $600 million in cash and refinanced $1.5 billion in debt in order to help strengthen its liquidity position in 2010. DAL now believes its unrestricted cash balance will be $5.6 billion at the end of the quarter, adding that its refinancing has now addressed more than 40% of next year's loan maturities. The airliner stated that its refinancing has now addressed more than 40% of next year's loan maturities.

Strengthening liquidity is a smart move as it can help the airline conquer some of its technical hurdles. DAL is enjoying a bit of a rally thus far in the calendar year (after starting 2009 with a sharp drop), but I am a bit concerned about its current battle with the $10 level. This round-number level has acted as resistance during the past two weeks, and it could continue in this role. The shares could overcome this resistance with some help from its 10-week and 10-day moving averages.

Twitter's much-hyped $100 million round of financing closed Friday, cementing the company's (illiquid) value at $1 billion, though Twitter itself would not confirm the amount. T. Rowe Price and Insight Venture Partners participated in the deal, as expected, which is believed to be a precursor to an eventual liquidity event -- such as an IPO or acquisition.

In a way, it feels like 1999, where you have investors rushing to invest in high-profile companies, despite the absence of revenue models. Yet, Twitter may not be as bad off as the traditional folks think, especially if the goal is an acquisition. The company does say that it's pursuing revenue via corporate accounts. But, it's been saying this for a while, and we haven't seen anything yet. Also, it's leaving open the possibility of running ads on the site, though this wouldn't happen within the next three months.

The venture capital (VC) industry demonstrated its commitment to the clean technology space in the second quarter of 2009, pumping $1.2 billion into the sector, according to a report by GTM Research. VC investments in cleantech are up 43.5% from the first quarter of the year, when $836 was put into play in the cleantech space.

The number of transactions increased, as well. In the first quarter, 59 deals were completed, and deal-flow surged 44% to 85 in the quarter just finished. Average deal size remained fairly consistent: $14.2 million for the first quarter and $14.1 for the second.

The shares of PrivateBancorp (NASDAQ: PVTB) wasted no time in finding a fresh annual low this morning after the Chicago-based bank announced plans to slash its dividend by 87%. The quarterly payout will now be one penny per share, down from 7.5 cents per share. On the heels of this report, the stock quickly slipped to $9.65, marking its lowest price since September 2002.

"Given the current economic and regulatory environment, we felt this was a prudent step to take to further enhance our capital position and our liquidity," said President and CEO Larry D. Richman in a statement.

In California, where unemployment has already reached 10%, as reports from the economic wizards suggest it might reach 9% nationally later this year -- we are looking at considerably worse still, and in the Los Angeles area it's higher now.

The state budget that was due on the governors desk last July, was just signed last week -- only seven months late!

We have deficits in the tens of billions of dollars and are looking at large increases in all kinds of taxes and "fees" (taxes) and "surcharges" (still more taxes). Adding new tax burdens to the most taxed people in the union is not the way to economic recovery.

While rival automaker General Motors Corporation (NYSE: GM) was monopolizing headlines this morning with its quarterly earnings report, Ford Motor Co. (NYSE: F) quietly slashed its forecast for 2009 auto sales. However, unlike GM, Ford says it has "no substantial doubt" about its ability to continue as a going concern.

In a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Ford predicted that total U.S. car and truck sales could tumble to 10.5 million in 2009. The new figure represents a drop of 1 million vehicles from Ford's previous estimate. On the plus side, the automaker thinks sales could arrive as high as 12.5 million vehicles if demand begins to recover in the second half of the year.

This post is part of a feature on companies and products that our bloggers think are in need of a makeover. See all 26.

In light of the short-selling ban, someone recently asked me for my opinion about short selling. Personally, I'm grudgingly accepting of the practice, but I believe that some serious changes need to be made. I believe that the practice of short selling should be made harder to engage in, more expensive to execute, limited in duration, and heavily scrutinized.

The uptick rule is fine, and it never should have been suspended, but I feel that it falls short of the mark. Bear raids can still be orchestrated in spite of uptick only buys. Purchasing on the uptick simply slows the process a little. A system must be developed by which the practice of bear raids is effectively terminated.

When I researched opinions and viewpoints on short selling, it became quite apparent that the writers I had encountered were not supporting short selling nearly as much as they were simply railing against a short-selling ban. Not one person actually made a case for why the practice is essential to market health. The closest I came to finding an eloquent argument in favor of short selling was an article by Paul R. LaMonica, editor at large, CNNMoney.com. Though Mr. LaMonica didn't really explain to me why I should be shorting stocks to benefit the markets, he did quote the SEC on 3.5 reasons why shorting might be beneficial.

It must be time to pay the piper. It seems all of our efforts to avoid the consequences of a recession in the aftermath of the technology bust in 2002/03 has just created an even more disastrous recession in 2008/09.

When you reach a point where the fear, and pain, and worry, are so great that valuations have no meaning as a consideration in business transactions and investments you have a dire situation. When you can no longer assess what something is worth you really are in trouble. Regardless of what my brain thinks, my heart feels we are there.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average tumbled again today relentlessly seeking a bottom that was not there. If not for the market closing the it might have kept falling. It ended the day at 9447.11, down 508.39 losing another 5%.

In retrospect the economic soft landing that Alan Greenspan manufactured with very low rates, that were kept low for far too long resulted in interest rate euphoria. That allowed the desire to buy a home to ramp up into wild speculation, ever increasing valuations, and development, and onto home equity loans at 100% of bloated values. Valuations that were unsupportable. When that started to run dry people started to tap into their credit cards with reckless abandon supporting their unrealistic lifestyles, and on the other end of the spectrum just to 'make ends meet'. Well, the 'ends are not meeting any more'.

Earlier today I posted No Cramer, now is not the time to panic! and I have not changed my mind but in watching my fellow investors increasingly scavenge for little bits of liquidity during this discouraging tail spin it seems only time and a lower standard of living will settle things. I think folks understand the time element and are willing to tighten their belts too. I am not sure most people have come to grips with the fact that we may be entering a new economy -- and it is not the one that was advertised.

Sheldon Liber is the CEO of a small private investment company and the principal for design and research at an architecture & planning firm. He writes the columns Chasing Value and Serious Money..

The U.S. Federal Reserve and the major central banks around the world took action again Tuesday to keep the financial markets liquid, amid a credit crunch that threatens to slow global growth to a crawl.

The Fed added $50 billion in liquidity to the financial markets through overnight repurchase agreements. In addition, the European Central Bank, the Bank of England, and the Bank of Japan each announced previously unscheduled actions to add liquidity to the financial markets, Marketwatch.com reported Tuesday.

The Fed's action came after overnight rates soared 333 basis points to 6.44%, as private banks pulled back credit and became reluctant lend to one another.

Economist Peter Dawson told BloggingStocks Tuesday the aim of the world's major central banks is clear: maintain market liquidity to enable transactions between solvent parties.

"The Fed and other central banks may have drawn a line in the sand regarding not saving insolvent institutions, but their stance regarding functioning banks is clear: they're going to prevent solvent institutions from freezing up for lack of liquidity," Dawson said. "The private banks may not choose to use that liquidity, due to a reluctance to conduct business, but the funds will be there."

In a move that will bloody a number of its customers, UBS (NYSE: UBS) will mark down the value of auction-rate securities held by its customers. According to The Wall Street Journal, the bank "began on Friday to lower the values of so-called auction-rate securities held by its clients, a move that will be a jolt to customers who had been told they were investing in a 'cash alternative.'"

The action could drop the value of some of the paper by as much as 20%. Other banks are likely to follow UBS's example.

Auction-rate securities are held by individual investors, institutions and some corporations, who list them on their balance sheets as cash equivalents. At the end of the first quarter, the public companies in this pool may have to take large write-offs for their holdings, which will hit P&Ls.

There is a strong case to be made that the banks and brokerages that marketed auction-rate paper did so by saying that they were nearly as safe as cash. The auction-rate market traded well from 1985 until late last year. At that point troubled financial companies were not willing to keep the market liquid by buying excess securities from one auction and selling them in the next. This role as "specialists" kept the market operating smoothly.

There will almost certainly be a rash of lawsuits now from institutions and corporations. They will argue that the financial companies who "made the market" in auction-rate paper had an obligation to keep it trading if the securities were offered to investors as being as liquid as Treasuries.

If the auction-rate market continues to deteriorate, the lawsuits can go on as investors lose more with each passing quarter.

Douglas A. McIntyre is an editor at 247wallst.com.

Regional central bank cooperation regarding actions and facilities aimed at maintaining financial system liquidity, yes. Regional central bank cooperation regarding interest rates, stay tuned.

The European Central Bank maintained its restrictive monetary policy stance regarding interest rates Wednesday when President Jean-Claude Trichet underscored that the bank is no hurry to lower key, short-term interest rates, Reuters reported.

The euro moved higher versus the dollar Wednesday at mid-day on the news, rising about one cent to $1.5744.

Trichet said price stability remained the ECB's number one concern and that the bank's current interest rate stance would help keep euro-zone inflation under control, Reuters reported. The ECB has kept its key refinance rate at 4.0% for nine months, while its transatlantic counterpart, the U.S. Federal Reserve, has lowered benchmark, short-term interest rates by 300 basis points since September 2007, in an effort to jump-start a U.S. economy stalled by the nation's worst housing slump in more than 20 years.

Further, Trichet turned aside notions that the ECB would soften its definition of price stability, the ceiling for which the bank places at "below but close to the 2% level." The euro-zone posted a 3.3% inflation rate in 2007, a rate Trichet has repeatedly said is too high.

As Portfolio.com so eloquently stated, President Bush has "Lyndon Johnson's war and now Herbert Hoover's bank runs. Other than that, it's going well."

With the high-profile collapse of The Bear Stearns Companies Inc. (NYSE: BSC) and questions surrounding the liquidity of other banks, some, like Jim Cramer, are urging people to relax and not rush to withdraw money from bank and brokerage accounts. This is reasonable: deposits that aren't unusually large are fully insured and there's really no reason to worry.

In today's Wall Street Journal, James B. Stewart writes (subscription required) that "before anyone panics and starts another run on a big bank, let me say unequivocally that client assets in the big brokerage firms are safe from the danger of any Bear Stearns-type collapse."

Stewart's right. But here's the thing: if your account with E Trade Financial Corporation (NASDAQ: ETFC) or another scandal-plagued financial services firm is giving you sleepless nights, switch! There's just no reason not to -- the different banks are all reasonably competitive and moving money around is pretty easy.

I know: if everyone does that, it will cause a run on the bank. But not everyone will, and if moving money will ease your nerves, go for it.

The dollar fell to a yet another record-low against the euro Friday and plunged against the world's other major currencies, as investors shunned U.S. investments ahead of an almost-certain U.S. recession, with likely further interest rate reductions from the U.S. Federal Reserve.

Friday's trigger event for selling was The Bear Stearns Companies, Inc. (NYSE: BSC) stunning announcement that -- less than 10 days after senior management officials called liquidity-crunch rumors 'absolutely ridiculous' -- it had accepted a 28-day, emergency, secured loan from the U.S. Federal Reserve via JP Morgan Chase & Co. (NYSE: JPM).

The Fed said in a statement that it will ``continue to provide liquidity as necessary to promote the orderly functioning of the financial system,'' repeating reassurances Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke has made often since credit problems first surfaced in August 2007. The Fed did not state how large their loan is to Bear Stearns.

As I waited for Bear Stearns Cos. (NYSE: BSC) conference call today, I could only shake my head in familiarity. I'm not the only one to see Lehman Brothers in 1998 all over again. Was it only a matter of time before the liquidity crisis hit? Bear Stearns has always been in the eye of the storm.

In the mind's eye of every young investment banker is an image of the people who work for various firms. Goldman Sachs' and Merrill Lynch's associates are stunningly beautiful and slim, the women are blondes with shiny hair and everyone wears French blue Egyptian cotton shirts. At Merrill Lynch and J.P. Morgan, it's all pinstripes and quiet good looks, confidence and understatement. At Lehman and Bear Stearns? Brash is the name of the game, and the young associates look like they're freshly showered after their championship wrestling match. You imagine that half of them are Army reservists, or maybe Navy Seals. Conservative? Only in the cost of their suits.

No, Bear Stearns brings "aggressive" to new heights, and certainly over the last few weeks its stakeholders are running scared. According to CEO Alan Schwartz in today's statements, the liquidity crunch was a phantom, "untrue rumors" that the company was undergoing a run on its assets scared lenders, and suddenly, no one would loan the investment bank overnight funds -- as Jim Cramer says succinctly, it's the "who is still stupid enough to have big trades" that put an institution at risk, fear. As Tom Taulli wrote, all the risk factors were suddenly triggered and Schwartz said those ugly words, "the liquidity position deteriorated," the words no one wanted to hear. Peter Cohan can't believe how quickly we've gone from liquidity concerns to a government bailout, and asks, "Why is the Fed getting involved instead of private investors? How bad is the problem really?"

Bad enough to send an already fragile market tumbling back down (the Dow is down 252 points as of 3:20 p.m.); bad enough to drag down peers like Citigroup, too. Brash, aggressive, bad suit bad. We can only hope the pinstripes over at J.P. Morgan Chase will make it all better again.

It was clear yesterday from the stock price action that The Bear Stearns Companies (NYSE: BSC) was facing some pain. The stock plunged yesterday to a five-year low on liquidity concerns, according to Bloomberg News. Bear rolled out its executives in an attempt to alleviate those concerns.

But today's news of a bailout to ease a liquidity squeeze is a major shock. The Wall Street Journal reports that JPMorgan Chase & Co (NYSE: JPM) and the Federal Reserve Bank of New York are arranging financing for Bear Stearns. Bear's stock is down more than 15% in early trading on the news. And the Dow is down 234 points.

The Journal reports that Bear Stearns CEO Alan Schwartz, in noting the liquidity rumors, said in a separate statement that "amidst this market chatter, our liquidity position in the last 24 hours had significantly deteriorated. We took this important step to restore confidence in us in the marketplace, strengthen our liquidity and allow us to continue normal operations."

This move raises many questions: How much money is being raised? Why is the Fed getting involved instead of private investors? How bad is the problem really? How much of Schwartz's comments are covering up for a really bad situation? Is this a government bailout for Bear Stearns's bad decisions?

Peter Cohan is President of Peter S. Cohan & Associates. He also teaches management at Babson College and edits The Cohan Letter. He has no financial interest in the securities mentioned.