Manufacturing Slump in UK, Buffett reiterates "economic Pearl Harbour", Irish Bank Guarantees Passed into Law, GLG estimates $95m exposure to LBIE

The Times reports Ford is running four-day week until Christmas at its Transit van plant in Southampton, similarly Land Rover at its plant in Solihull. Good for work-life balance. 

Warren Buffet reiterated his stance on the credit crisis and proposed bailout - "it is an economic pearl harbour" adding "perfectly credit-worthy companies can't obtain funds...the commercial paper market has been very tough...money market funds...$175bn poured out in 3 days...the credit-markets totally have seized up, we very much need a bill". On the current crisis and the circumstances that led up to it he commented: "we have the whole world trying to deleverage...everybody leveraged up and you could get all the money you needed and anytime there was a spread between borrowing costs and what you thought an asset would bring, everybody was tempted to reach for it, now you got everyone trying to deleverage" adding that the only "countervailing force" with the capacity to leverage up and counteract the crisis was the US government. The FT reports - "Ireland’s decision to prop up its six biggest lenders by guaranteeing all their debts and deposits as passed into law on Thursday". Gordon Brown, concerned about outflows of money to Irish institutions, raised concerns with Irish PM Brian Cowen. We haven't heard much on the impact of the credit crisis on hedge funds. One exception is GLG Partners, Inc, an alternative asset manager, which sent an update to investors detailing exposure to Lehman Brothers International (Europe) ("LBIE"). The letter read - "In total, we currently estimate that the combined direct exposure of the GLG Funds to be approximately $95 million, or less than 1% of GLG's net AUM." GLGs four founders worked at Lehman Brothers and Lehman had a 20% stake in the firm.