Pendulum Swings Back Toward Detroit

Wall Street Journal
May 3, 2011

The successful restructuring of Detroit's auto makers, a group whose survival was in question just two years ago, and the March 11 earthquake in Japan are combining to reverse the fortunes of the U.S. and Japanese auto industries.

On Monday, Chrysler Group LLC swung to a profit on sharply higher vehicle sales for its first quarter, its first profitable period since mid-2006, when it was part of Germany's then-named DaimlerChrysler AG.

Meanwhile, Japan's big three—Toyota Motor Corp., Honda Motor Co. and Nissan Motor Co.—that once seemed poised to dominate the global industry and have benefited most from Detroit's decades-long decline, are slipping into a crisis of their own as a result of that country's natural disaster.

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