LINK Don't miss this one folks as they will give you the OFFICIAL SPIN on Y2K in 5 part harmony.

PART 1: Taking Care of Business

This has been another year of solid economic growth. What are the chances it could all come crashing down if the Y2K computer bug strikes?

According to economic forecaster Donald Ratajczak, "The worst case would probably mean some paralysis of financial activity in some secondary countries. Not in the United States, because we have enormous contingency plans here."

That's not to say there won't be problems. Power outages in Venezuela could delay the flow of oil to the United States. Shipping glitches in Asia could interrupt the supply of auto parts.

Many businesses already know how to manage these problems. Y2K will simply give them more work.

Lou Marcoccio, of the Gartner Group, says, "If they can bring on additional support they can handle those higher volumes. This will help reduce those interruptions from occurring."

In the United States, the big worry is small business. Small companies employ 53 million Americans, more than half the work force. But almost three in ten small businesses say they're taking no action against the Y2K bug.

Bill Weiller says that's shortsighted. He runs Purafil, a company that makes air cleaning systems. He says he didn't take Y2K seriously at first. Then the company discovered some of the equipment it sells was not compliant. Purafil upgraded the office and manufacturing systems.

Weiller says small businesses may be more dependent on technology then they realize.

"I think perhaps they don't realize the areas of vulnerability, same as I didn't. They may think if they make a simple product that's manual they probably can't see where their liability is."

Companies shouldn't expect all Y2K problems to show up on January 1.

According to Sen. Bob Bennett (R-Utah), "It's going to take several months for the whole thing to play out. And if we are in trouble, it will have to cascade and build over a period of several months and we won't really know until March or April of 2000."

The stock market and banks are expected to be in good shape for the date change, and ATM's are ready. Of course, some of them may not work on January 1. Even on a normal day, as many as one in 50 ATM's aren't working.

So if you find an ATM that doesn't work on New Year's Day, remember Y2K may not be to blame.

-- y2k dave (xsdaa111@hotmail.com), November 16, 1999

Answers

Tee hee hee. Enormous contingency plans: if we can't import oil ... we'll tell more staff to drive to work and man the phones. Hurrah, we're saved! God bless America!

-- Colin MacDonald (roborogerborg@yahoo.com), November 16, 1999.

The only "enormous contingency plans" I've noticed is on domestic military deployment and the Fed spins.

I am not impressed with Americas "enormous contingency plans."

Then again perhaps they were referring to some citizenry, in which case they are correct, some citizenry has "enormous contingency plans."

Do you think the governments could show us all in detail the "enormous contingency plan" on water should 2/3rds of CA find themselves without it? 2/3rds in CA is more millions of people than many a nation.

-- Paula (chowbabe@pacbell.net), November 16, 1999.

Notable quote by Senator Bennett from "Taking Care of Business":

http://cnn.com/SPECIALS/weblinks/hln/y2k/part1/index.html

[snip]

Companies shouldn't expect all Y2K problems to show up on January 1.

According to Sen. Bob Bennett (R-Utah), "It's going to take several months for the whole thing to play out. And if we are in trouble, it will have to cascade and build over a period of several months and we won't really know until March or April of 2000."

[snip]

-- Linkmeister (link@librarian.edu), November 16, 1999.

CNN live about 50 days ago spent 4 minutes on Dodd and Bennett and when the information got to be too hot they (cnn) switched over to their (cnns) talking head totally preempting the senators information.

The single most blantantly obvious media manipulation I have ever witnessed. Screw CNN and The horse they rode in on!! Wheres that Christiana whats her name when you need her. In fact where are all the journatlist??

-- CNN Blows (dciinc@aol.com), November 16, 1999.