If you’re a shareholder of DaimlerChrysler, you’ll likely relish the breaking news coming out of the New York Times.

If you have a site called The Truth About Cars, you’ll likely find it ironic that Cerberus now has the job that Hercules couldn’t handle: fix Chrysler against the onslaught of domestic and foreign competition, sloppy ownership, and complex menage a trois relationships between Chrysler, Daimler, GMAC, etc… Gee, it looks like the protege is now the mentor, the hunted now the hunter.

In this case, Chrysler is now Cerberus.

If the news coming out of the press is to be believed, Cerberus is now the lead bidder, destined to take control of Chrysler (giving Daimler a minority stake in the company it once loved or purported to love). It does make sense, given that Cerberus was the lead investor in the consortium that purchased 51 percent of the financing arm of General Motors (GMAC). Cerberus has a deep knowledge of the industry, must believe somewhat in the management team?, and feels that it has the ability to turn things around.

In general, private equity firms have taken flack from many constituencies for their supposed greed, perpetual company restructurings, and their overall bad vibes. However, this reputation is not well deserved and is mostly fictitious.

Let’s face it, these are sometimes horrible consequences for individual people and entities. However, the big picture tells us that this is an absolutely necessary ingredient for the long term health of the economy. The ability to allocate capital and shift resources (in essence, financial flexibility) are the keystones of American business and the reason why our economy is the paradigm for the world and will likely remain so for a long while.

In your personal lives, you should be taking the example of a Cerberus or of any private equity firm and looking at ways to innovate, restructure, and recapitalize your personal balance sheet. This means proper allocation of cash across assets (including the new asset class called entrepreneurship). It also means the analysis of all liabilities.

Remember, you’re here to think on a different plane, not to add 2 + 2. Which, by the way, does not necessarily equal 4.