Business Week magazine says that the bite of the "millennium bug" computer problem will be worse than expected. It said: "Now, the hard numbers are coming in and, if the pattern holds, they point to an even larger bill than many feared just a few months ago. In the third quarter, the Securities & Exchange Commission for the first time urged companies to disclose what it will cost them to head off the bug. The disturbing news: Many now plan to spend, on average, about 26% more than they thought just months ago...AT&T, for example, had said in early 1997 that it might shell out $300 million. Now, it says it could spend $900 million before Jan. 1 2000-some $186 million of that in this year's fourth quarter alone. Chase Manhattan Corp. says it will spend $363 million up 21% from its $300 million second-quarter estimate. And Aetna Inc. is blaming fatter-than-expected Y2K bills-$195 million instead of the $139 million forecasted last summer-for a 6.1% drop in third-quarter profits. Even states are feeling sticker shock: Illinois officials say fixing bugs in the state bureaucracy will cost $114.4 million-up 65% from 1997 estimates. Outspoken Y2K-watcher Edward E. Yardeni, chief economist at Deutsche Bank Securities Inc., says the numbers show that some organizations are 'just starting' to wake up to Y2K's potential for damage-but he believes the possible impact is enormous..."

-- a (a@a.a), January 31, 1999

Answers

A: Gotta link you can give or are you reading this from hardcopy?

-- Arnie Rimmer (Arnie_Rimmer@usa.net), January 31, 1999.

Arnie: It's in the 12-14-1998 issue. They charge to view online articles, so you'll either have to fork over some cash or visit your local library. Here's the summary from their web search page:

Y2K IS WORSE THAN ANYONE THOUGHT;

Author: By Marcia Stepanek in New York, with bureau reports; People have been sounding the alarm about the costs of the millennium bug--the software glitch that could paralyze computers come Jan. 1, 2000--for a couple of years. Now, the hard numbers are...; Size: 15K; News; 12-14-1998;

-- a (a@a.a), February 01, 1999.

The totally goofy thing about Business Week is that they never report on anything but the cost of repairs. They project the effects of Y2K exclusively from those, never from any notion that (gasp!) some of those systems might not get fixed in time. Worthless.

-- Franklin Journier (ready4y2k@yahoo.com), February 01, 1999.