"Wall Street Transcript - Special Y2K Report"

In a vital review of this topic for investors and industry professionals, this Y2K Report features an in-depth analysis of The Y2K Situation by leading expert D. Paul Cohen, President of Dirty Dozen Research: No Agenda.
From: http://archive.twst.com/notes/articles/hav500.html

Analyst calls U.S. corporate y2k compliance progress 'one of the biggest deceptions in 30 years'

D. Paul Cohen, Dirty Dozen Research: No Agenda.

D. PAUL COHEN is President of Dirty Dozen Research: No Agenda.

TWST: First of all, what is the purpose of your firm?

Mr. Cohen: Dirty Dozen Research: No Agenda is a registered investment advisor. Its purpose is to analyze, write, and distribute a thoroughly researched product that is absent of any bias or any agenda. Our research seeks to find truth and tell the truth. I'm the analyst institutions hire when they don't want a song and dance from traditional Wall Street research sources.

TWST: So as you see it, Wall Street thinks that Y2K is a non event, and that all is well within corporate America.

Mr. Cohen: Wall Street generally believes what it wants to believe, that Y2K will be a benign non issue - a blip with no major problems. Corporate America sold the Street that bill of goods. Corporations regularly promote themselves and deceive. It is human nature. The art of competent securities analysis is to separate self-serving promotion and deception from the truth.

But in general, U.S. corporate Y2K compliance progress is one of the biggest corporate deceptions I have seen in 30 years of analytical experience. The problem is that Wall Street didn't have the analytical experience of IT competence, nor the IT infrastructure values from which to ask intelligent questions. The Street simply couldn't do comparative analysis, get relevant answers, give the companies little or no wiggle room to respond inadequately, and conclude in an intelligent and informed manner. It just plain didn't happen.

---------------------- -More about the 2700 word report here:

http://www.go.com/Content?arn=PR4179-19991203&qt=y2k&sv=IS&lk=noframes&col=NX&kt=A&ak=news1486

And here:
http://www.twst.com/y2kreport.html

When an assessment is, gasp, honest, it again is not so pretty folks.

-- faith'nhope (y2kaos@home.com), December 03, 1999

Answers

BTW, publication of this story is today:

The Wall Street Transcript Publishes Y2K Report

09:16 a.m. Dec 03, 1999 Eastern

NEW YORK, Dec. 3 /PRNewswire/ -- D. Paul Cohen, President of Dirty Dozen Research: No Agenda examines the outlook for Y2K in this timely and deeply informative 2,700-word interview from The Wall Street Transcript (212-952-7433) or http://www.twst.com/y2krepor t.html

-- faith'nhope (y2kaos@home.com), December 03, 1999.

I don't feel as though the report is worth the $75 asking price.

Just a Peace Farmer

-- Peace Farmer (peacefarmer@thefarm.veg), December 03, 1999.

Okay, just who is this D. Paul Cohen and what is he an "expert" on?

Anyone ever hear of this person before? What is his background? How long has he been in business?

I make no claims to know what I'm talking about, unlike this person. If what he says is indeed correct, the SEC is going to have to investigate this.

-- GoldReal (GoldReal@aol.com), December 03, 1999.

There: http://www.twst.com/y2krepor t.html

Cohen states, "Dirty Dozen Research: No Agenda is a registered investment advisor. Its purpose is to analyze, write, and distribute a thoroughly researched product that is absent of any bias or any agenda. Our research seeks to find truth and tell the truth. I'm the analyst institutions hire when they don't want a song and dance from traditional Wall Street research sources."

He asserts, "We evaluate and analyze about 3,500 U.S. public companies. We make our analyses available to financial institutions, corporations and individual investors. We are able to compare one company against another company within a given industry group, using 20 essential variables. We are the only people in the world who have the exclusive agreement to use the IT (Information Technology) values for Y2K comparison. No one else in the world has this data."

On corporate SEC Y2K disclosures, Cohen declares, "Most of the disclosures are woefully lacking, purposely so in my judgment. You only need to read the disclosures to understand the quality of this communication."

-- faith'nhope (y2kaos@home.com), December 03, 1999.