Chrysler Plants to Remain Closed Until Fiat Merger Complete
ROBERTS: Welcome back to the Most News in the Morning. A live picture from Detroit right now. It's cloudy and 59 degrees, rain on the way there today. Chrysler employees in the Motor City and across the country on edge this morning as the car maker goes into Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. Plants were shut down until a merger with Italy's Fiat is complete. President Obama is calling the bankruptcy, "one more step on the path to Chrysler's revival." Let's bring in Neal Boudette. He is the Detroit bureau chief of "The Wall Street Journal." He's in Detroit for us this morning. The president said that this Chapter 11 bankruptcy could give Chrysler a new lease on life. And Neil, certainly There are plenty of companies that have gone through Chapter 11 to emerge stronger and more nimble. How do you think Chrysler is going to do going through this process?</s>NEAL BOUDETTE, DETROIT BUREAU CHIEF, "THE WALL STREET JOURNAL": Well, I think the bankruptcy process at least gives Chrysler a chance. If they weren't in this step, if they had not been able to have the threat of bankruptcy to line up the deal with the United Autoworkers, to push through this alliance with Fiat, they could be headed - they could have been headed for liquidation. So this is a relatively a pretty good place. And they do have a chance to come back. They'll go through the process, and they'll get out. They got their costs in line now. And we'll see if they can go forward and survive.</s>ROBERTS: So this process could take anywhere from 30 to 60 days, maybe even a little bit longer. What could throw it off of the rails during that time?</s>BOUDETTE: Well, you know, you're taking your chances going into court because anything could happen. And certainly this issue with the banks. Now, they're dealing with the bank's secured debt. In other words, Chrysler put up plants as collateral to borrow this money. And secured lenders have very strong legal grounds in bankruptcy. And so, you know, they could press this or any decisions that go on, they could potentially appeal and push into a real legal battle.</s>ROBERTS: And thousands of people's livelihoods are at stake. Employees of Chrysler, people who work at dealerships, people who run dealerships. What do you think the impact is going to be on those folks?</s>BOUDETTE: Well, the dealers are going to take a very heavy toll here. It's going to be very difficult because Chrysler's finance partner, Chrysler Financial is a separate company now, is basically shutting down operations. So dealers can't borrow money to buy cars to put on their lots anymore. Or at least for the time being and they can't get auto loans through Chrysler Financial for customers. So there are a lot of dealers that are going to end up going out of business, I'm sure of that, in the months ahead.</s>ROBERTS: Such a shame. You know, all of this hinges on this new partnership with Fiat. The last partnership Chrysler was involved with Daimler Motors, didn't work out so well. How do you this Fiat marriage is going to be? Will it work out better?</s>BOUDETTE: Well, as I said, it at least gives Chrysler a chance to survive. But, you know, I think there are risks here too. Fiat mainly makes small and midsized cars. And those don't generate a lot of profit. So even if these cars sell well, Chrysler is not going to be making a lot of money off of these. They would have to sell a whole lot. And right now consumers don't really turn to Chrysler for small cars. They think of Honda, Toyota, even GM and Ford first before they think of Chrysler.</s>ROBERTS: We'll see what can come out of the box with a new attitude and maybe sell some cars. Neal Boudette from "The Wall Street Journal" in Detroit this morning. Neal, it's good to talk to you. Thanks for coming in today.</s>BOUDETTE: Pleasure.</s>ROBERTS: Kiran.</s>CHETRY: There's a lot of rumors and bad information out there about how swine flu is spread. And we're going to give you a reality check. Should we be really concerned about riding on the subway or being in crowded places. How about flying or should you cancel your cruise? Dr. Sanjay Gupta is on Twitter live from the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta. He's taking your questions. It's 42 minutes after the hour.