Chrysler filed for bankruptcy yesterday.  It was a key step in the Obama Administration's efforts to save the automaker by pushing it into an alliance with Fiat.  Now General Motors is on the clock.  GM has until June 1 to work out a restructuring plan that meets the approval of the federal government, or it too might be filing for bakruptcy.  William Holstein is the author of Why GM Matters: Inside the Race to Transform and American Icon, and he thinks bankruptcy would be a disaster for GM and the nation.  Holstein says bankruptcy works when you get a number of people to the same table and work out a deal.  But in the case of automakers, particularly GM, there are too many parties (all the autoparts manufacturers) to bring together.  And, as he told an audience at Columbia Business School, he thinks the government's intervention in General Motors might actually prevent the automaker from making an effective transformation.  

Watch the full presentation here.