With General Motors filing for bankruptcy , the biggest manufacturer do so with its debts more than double its assets, the question needs to be asked about what this means for the auto industry, both in the US and globally. This is the world's biggest industrial bankruptcy. It's the world's third largest to date, after Lehman Brothers and telecoms firm Worldcom.

This bankruptcy will have global implications. Analysts say it will have an impact on Japan with 114 Japanese companies, 70 of them auto parts or related trading companies, having business ties with GM and companies in its group. And in the US, dealerships and suppliers will feel the aftershock. GM says it plans to reduce its network of 6000 dealerships to as few as 3600 by next year. Chrysler is seeking to terminate nearly 800 dealers. And that will affect tens of thousands of employees, many of whom are likely to lose their jobs.

And what of the US auto industry? How will a GM owned by the US taxpayer emerge out of this? It's doubtful whether it will return to profitability in the immediate future. ""If you look at how Chrysler is progressing, you could say things are going well for them, and so it looks like GM will also be a success, but to assume that would be naïve. With its greater size and global scope, GM is more complicated, so I would be concerned if I was the one pulling the trigger on this bankruptcy," Jeremy Anwyl, chief executive of the auto research Web site Edmunds.com told journalists.

Of course, the key to all this is whether GM will start making cars people want to buy and drive, and sell them at prices that will allow it to make a profit. With unemployment in the US now surpassing 9%, the highest in 25 years, that will be a tall order. There is no quick fix here.