'Boom, Boom, Out Go the Lights'
' with Jonathan Gregg May 13, 1998
Boom, Boom, Out Go the
Lights
The good news: Computers in securities
firms and brokerages will survive the
perilous transition to 1-1-00. The bad
news? There may be no electricity to
power them. At a breakfast briefing today,
an industry representative assured about
80 congressional aides that securities
companies were in excellent health. "There
will be a successful conversion to Year
2000 in the United States in the securities
industry," predicted Arthur Thomas, chair
of the Securities Industry Association's
Y2K committee. An industry-wide test is
scheduled for March 1999, with a trial run
this summer. As for the rest of the world,
well, "when you get into emerging markets,
there could be turmoil." Harris Miller,
president of the Information Technology
Association of America, said this proves
the U.S. government must show more
leadership. (ITAA certifies companies as
Y2K-OK for $7,700 to $9,250.) Speaking
last was David Hall, an
embedded-systems consultant at Cara
Corporation, who warned of power
outages. "Every test I have seen done on
an electrical power plant has caused it to
shut down. Period. I know of no plant or
facility investigated to this date that has
passed without Y2K problems," he said.
Added Hall: "Things like this come out and
the mass media gets ahold of it -- you're
going to have shortages because of panic.
How to communicate this to the public
needs to be addressed." It's a little late
now. --By Declan McCullagh/Washington
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