Let's Make a Deal   Beyond its rehabilitated fiscal reputation,
the company also boasts enviable assets. Two weeks ago,
Northwest announced a clever plan whereby it shifted a $758
million Japanese mortgage into a different form of ownership,
allowing it to be accounted for as "minority interest in an
affiliate." In so doing, it wiped $758 million worth of debt off
its balance sheet. NWA management then announced they would use
$537 million in cash and $300 million from a new unsecured bank
loan to pay off $837 million worth of debt.  This chunk of old
debt is the last portion of the original financing used to buy
Northwest through a $3.65 billion buyout in 1989--which means
new freedom for the Checchi/Wilson regime. Until now, most of
the airline's chief assets were committed as collateral to the
leveraged buyout financing; they included Northwest's prized
Pacific routes, currently listed with a book value of about $4.7
billion and a market value of about $6 billion, according to
news reports and inside sourc