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.

At times, during this protracted global recession, it seems as if the entire world depended on home equity loan-fueled U.S. consumption to maintain GDP growth.

De-coupling -- the notion that the emerging market economies of China, India, Brazil and Russia were independent of the developed world, from a GDP growth standpoint, and were self-sustaining -- has been quickly dispelled. "De-coupling" has about as much validity as another ruse that made the rounds in the last boom (as it does in all expansions): the fallacy of "this time it's different" – the notion that some economic phenomenon can continue indefinitely. During the last expansion there was a widely-held view that housing prices, despite numerous metrics that showed that housing prices had hit bubble levels, could rise at double-digit rates annually, for a decade or more.

Are mortgage rates affecting U.S. mortgage applications? The short answer most likely is yes. Mortgage applications tumbled to a 7 month low, with refinancing loans down 30%, according to Reuters. This is clearly not a good sign for the housing market.

Kenneth Rosen from the University of California says that mortgage rates are just one factor causing the drop. He adds that high unemployment, concerns for job security, and problems with buyers being unable to sell their existing homes are also affecting the market.

Where is the bond market headed?

Fear over the increased debt supply for various stimulus packages triggered heavy selling in U.S. Treasuries. The 30 year long bond fell over 3 points, now yielding 2.99%. The yield curve has steepened in the past week. This happens when longer term bonds and notes fall faster than shorter term maturities such as Treasury notes and bills.

There is concern over the Treasury's need to finance large chunks of U.S. debt. A new round of quarterly refunding has raised fear about the market's ability to absorb the $144 billion dollars worth of Treasury coupons in that two-week period.

It is expected that the first half of the year will be a volatile period for U.S. Treasuries. We have never had such a large debt to finance, so no one really knows how investors will react when all of this supply hits the market.

What do you think would happen if investors fail to step up and buy our debt?

Over the past few years, the mortgage business has been virtually dead -- that is, until recently.

Why? The key driver, of course, is the plunge in interest rates (keep in mind that the Federal Reserve plans to buy up $500 billion in mortgages). In fact, you can get a fixed-rate mortgage loan for less than 5%. You'd have to go back to the 1950s to see those levels.

But there's a caveat: the mortgage growth is not for purchasing houses; instead, we are seeing a surge of refinancing activities. But, hey, this is a start, right?

In the first week of 2009, we saw the biggest jump in mortgage applications since 2003 (this is according to a report from the Mortgage Bankers Association). There was a 15.8% jump in the index.

Interestingly enough, it's still fairly difficult to secure a mortgage, especially as underwriting standards have increased. Basically, a large number of consumers have minimal levels of home equity as well as damaged credit.

Now, Fannie Mae is in the process of implementing new programs for troubled borrowers, which should help. What's more, Congress may introduce some new programs.

However, it is critical that housing prices increase again, which means the U.S. economy will need to once again get back on track.

Tom Taulli is the author of various books, including The Complete M&A Handbook and The Streetsmart Guide to Short Selling: Techniques the Pros Use to Profit in Any Market. He is also the founder of BizEquity, a valuation website.

It occurred to me while responding to a comment in my Chasing Value column that there are some basic necessities in life that we do not normally think of as such. The discussion had to do with finding those intrinsic or basic things a company (stock) produces that might reduce investor risk or help establish basic value.

Food and water clearly matter to everyone, and you could add energy, but until the economy freezes up like it has the past year, you might not appreciate the importance of credit.

The single biggest reason that car dealers say they cannot move anything off the lot is a lack of consumer credit. People have tapped out their credit cards and home equity lines, and probably their friends and family by now -- so it is all pay as you go. The going is rough and the going is slow.

The Federal Reserve has now reduced the overnight rate to nothing in an effort to get financial institutions to free up some of their capital and to lend to each other. They have also been trying to push mortgage rates down. They were successful in doing so because many lenders have offered me rates under 5% for 30-year fixed mortgages just this past week.

This post is part of AOL Money & Finance's Best & Worst in Money 2008 feature.

Consumers took it in the chin so many times this year, it's surprising many of us are still standing. Consumer credit for student loans, mortgages, car loans and just about everything else dried up completely by October. Oil prices soared, drained our pocketbooks, and then dropped like a stone after doing the damage. Food prices continue to soar as the prices for our homes and the value of our retirement funds plummet. So how does one decide, which is the most disturbing consumer trend? Let's look at our top four picks, presented in alphabetical order.

Americans with good credit struggling to get loans at favorable rates
While rates are starting to come down thanks to the latest bailout by the Fed, good deals are hard to find. Most banks are hoarding their cash and only lending it out to those with credit scores over 760. Even then, rates are not that favorable. You can only think about applying for a mortgage or equity line if you have at least 90 percent equity in a home that has probably lost value and, in most cases, you must have 80 percent equity to get a home loan. How can the U.S. stop the downward spiral in home values until credit is available for qualified buyers?

After months and months of dreary news from the worlds of housing and real estate, here's a bit of a pick-me-up: applications for mortgages rose 32.2% during the week of January 4, which was shortened by the New Year's holiday. This was a welcome change, as demand had been heading lower for the three previous weeks.

The Mortgage Bankers Association said in its weekly findings that its overall application index rose to 706 from 533.9 the previous week. Holiday-season volatility could be partially responsible for this jump -- in the week surrounding New Year's Day 2007, the application index was 16.6% higher.

Refinance volume spiked 53.9% during the week, while purchase activity was up 14.7%. Refinance applications accounted for 57.7% of total applications, up from 50.9% the previous week. (With all the speculation surrounding future rate cuts, wouldn't homeowners want to wait and see what happens at the next Federal Open Market Committee meeting in two-plus weeks?)

In its weekly report on the state of mortgage-application demand in the U.S., the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) said its purchase index dropped 8.5% to 360.8, while refinancing activity slid 15.4% lower to 1,620.9. The purchase index hasn't been this low since the week of October 10, 2003.

The group's index of overall mortgage-application activity declined for the third straight week, losing 11.6% to 533.9, hitting the lowest point since July 2006. These numbers were in the red even though borrowing costs have moved lower. Fixed 30-year mortgage rates averaged 6.05% in the latest reporting period, down 5 basis points to hit their lowest point since late November.

The MBA's smoothed-out four-week averages for its trio of indices also pulled lower. The overall market index lost 9%, the purchase index was down 5.9%, and the refinancing index was 11.8% lower on four-week moving average basis.

I've had a few mortgages in my time, and they've always been the 30-year fixed rate type. You couldn't get me to take an adjustable rate mortgage at gun point, but that's not the point of this post. What I have to say will come to most of you as an oversimplification in the face of the mortgage banking meltdown, but try as I may, I just can't make it any more complicated than this. If I was a mortgage banker facing the wholesale destruction of my lending sector, I'd suck it up quick and proceed as follows:

I would begin to contact all my mortgage clients with notes facing foreclosure, starting with the most serious cases first. I'd make the offer for fixed rate refinancing at current rates with a 2% point fee attached to the note. The 2% could be paid up front, financed with the principle, tagged to the end of the mortgage as an appendage to be paid upon sale of the property, or handled as a separate note. I would, of course, need the blessings of the secondary mortgage market, but when it's a case of bailing water as you're sinking or properly fixing the holes, you only have two choices: You can work together for an effective solution or you can simply look really stupid.

All I'm hearing is a bunch of boo hoo hoo, the mortgages are rotten, what shall we do! I've yet to see just one three-piece suit come forward with a constructive idea. I'm not hearing anything ... are you? If it's really as scary as the 100k a year crowd is claiming it to be, then where are all those wrinkled old farts with their masterful solutions? Perhaps if a couple of those crisp paper misers would slip out of their leather-clad offices for just a moment and network with people who are in fear of losing their homes, we could come up with some compromises and creative solutions that would equally benefit the consumers, the banks, and the economy.

Until and unless I see someone step out from behind the falsely erected shroud of "there's nothing we can do," I have no pity for the mortgage holders, and my position is underpinned with a healthy "shame on you." You did this to yourselves with shoddy lending practices, dubious documentation, and your profiteering, fee-laden attitudes. Now get your asses out of those leather desk chairs and fix the mess you created. It's yours, you made it, now pick up after yourselves. It's the least you can do.