HealthStream announced today that it has amended its credit line with SunTrust Bank, adding an additional $5 million of availability to help fund growth initaitives and extending that availability to July 2012. HealthStream's credit line now totals $20 million.

"We are pleased that RBC and PNC have recently joined with the other lenders in our Line of Credit and that these five strong financial institutions have shown their support of Brookdale. This expansion of the credit line furthers our strategy of using positive cash flow to delever the Company's balance sheet while simultaneously creating financial flexibility to pursue opportunities as they arise."

Uzi Yemin, President and Chief Executive Officer of Delek US, remarked: “In connection with the ongoing support of our lenders, we have secured a long-term credit facility for our retail segment. This facility will provide us with a significant degree of financial flexibility to accommodate new store construction, store reimaging and strategic acquisitions.”

I'd like to think we can find a different way to get economic growth rising besides letting consumers borrow and spend. Unfortunately, I don't see an obvious way to revive growth here until those consumers get the extra cash they need to buy more.

We need a giant jobs program to hire people and put money in their pockets that they’ll spend and thereby create more jobs. Put ideology aside and recognize this fact. If it makes you more comfortable call it the National Defense Jobs Act. Call it the WPA. Call it Chopped Liver. Whatever, we have to get the great army of the unemployed and underemployed working again.

"Your good borrowers don't want to borrow, and your bad borrowers you're trying to kick out of the system," she said. "So on average, lending portfolios are down 4 to 20 percent and we think they're going to be down another 10 to 15 percent for all the big banks this year."