O/T The United States Government is arguably the single most important entity that must be Y2K compliant in order for us to continue enjoying the benefits of the 20th century, and to have a peaceful transition into the 21st century. Here is a link to a report to congress by the U.S. Office of Management and Budget regarding the status of Y2K compliancy of the Governments federal agencies, dated Feb 15, 1998. The OMB is riding herd on the government agencies, and is increasing its oversight of the ones lagging behind.
cio.fed.gov
I have been studying this problem extensively. Take with a grain of salt anything written in 1997 or before, especially in regards to "Y2K denial". The denial problem is gone, and businesses are in various stages of fixing the problem. A Yahoo search on "Y2K" will give you links galore on the problem, and most are of the doom and gloom variety. A random search on individual companies will indicate that Y2K is foremost on the business mind. I do believe that panic will cause a run on banks and stocks...just look how perception drives the market now. Y2K is still a blip in most investors' minds, but that will change late this year or early next year. The first quarter next year is my time frame for selling my stocks and converting them into cash. When the crash comes from panic selling, which I think is inevitable, in my opinion, is when I'm going to buy up companies that I believe will survive, such as Cocoa Cola, Gillette, Clorox, Compaq, Microsoft, Intel, etc. I'm looking at the Y2K problem as the greatest money making opportunity in my lifetime. This fits in with my contrarian nature (I bought into Compaq at the height of panic selling in March). The Y2K problem is real, but we'll get through it, although some companies will probably go down or be hurt bad...the ones who don't have the money to fix the problem and the ones who can't afford to shut their doors for a week or two.
E.H.F. |
