Chrysler could be back in business a month after bankruptcy

The Obama administration is exercising control over the U.S. auto industry with the kind of efficiency that dazzled the world in the 1950s -- and back then it was America's business management that was at the top of its game. In 1954, General Motors (GM) controlled 54 percent of the North American car market. Today, not so much.

Let's face it -- the bankruptcy of GM and Chrysler forced the companies to do in months what their managers and their boards should have done without government intervention over the past several years. The bankruptcy of these companies is a failure of American corporate governance on the biggest scale yet. As I argued in my book Value Leadership in 2003, boards and management are failing shareholders and change is required.