Chrysler's road out of bankruptcy

President Obama’s announcement that Chrysler will declare bankruptcy “isn’t as bad as it sounds,” said Matthew DeBord in Slate's The Big Money. Chrysler won’t “face liquidation,” and Michigan won’t face “an unemployment cataclysm.” This just means that Chrysler, which has been in de facto bankruptcy for months, will have some breathing room as it tries to climb back with the help of government cash and a new partner, Fiat.

Chrysler's path out of Chapter 11 is still "fraught with peril, plant closings, and a real possibility of failure," said Mark Phelan in the Detroit Free Press. Chrysler and Italian carmaker Fiat will have to "rush a new line of vehicles into showrooms with an urgency no automaker has ever faced before." Only fuel-efficient and stylish new offerings—like Fiat's retro 500 minicar—can pull Chrysler out of the mud.

America will be better off if Detroit survives, said Robert Lawrence in The New York Times. All other things being equal, it's better to have U.S. companies produce our cars because the profits stay here. But that doesn't mean taxpayers should prop up these companies at all costs—they have to stand on their own, and soon.

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