John this is my favorite part--
brw.com.au
>>>But even the IT industry was unable to envisage the scale of the challenge. "Up to the middle of last year, the association had been hankering for a national Y2K testing day in August or September this year," Hedley says. "However, we abandoned the idea when we realised it would be too complex. We will just have to move the testing day to December 31."<<<
That was rich...As though the "live test" will somehow be less "complex"?
This part was pretty good too:
>>>John Ridge, vice-president of the Australian Computer Society plays down such statements. "Yardeni started saying that there was something like a 30% chance of a recession," Ridge says, "but, really, you could always say that, because 30% is a pretty unlikely chance. I think that saying the year 2000 will start a recession is a bit dramatic." Ridge does concede that there may be economic consequences. "You can be assured that if a worldwide recession happens next year, Y2K will be blamed for it. But who can say that it wasn't the Asia crisis that started the ball rolling?"<<<
Ridge needs to check Yardeni's forecast again which is now at a 70% chance (for some time now) and holding. Why? Because he recently noted that remediation news from abroad has not been encouraging and foreign trade may be affected. Ridge does not have his eye on the ball...I thought this article was written some time ago...I noticed the date on it is March 01, 1999.
Ridge also needs to consult some economic data. Australia has been suffering the effects of the Asian Crisis for some two years now as an Asia-Pacific trading partner. He'll know if y2k started the ball rolling when those already depressed Aussie exports which have taken a hit suddenly drop off the map due to y2k disruptions. It might behoove Ridge to determine what portion/percentage of GDP is made up of exports and take a look at the relationship between GDP and unemployment which is well documented in Australia.
Yeah, I'd say a big "challenge" awaits Australia.
|
