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Non-Tech : The Y2K Newspaper -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Bill Ounce who wrote (94)	9/17/1999 1:29:00 PM
From: C.K. Houston	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 198

Greenspan to say US banks ready for Y2K on Friday WASHINGTON, Sept 16 (Reuters) - Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan will try to assure Americans on Friday that U.S. banks are ready to cope with the effects of the year 2000 computer bug, known as Y2K, a Fed official said. Federal Reserve Board Governor Edward Kelley said on Thursday that Greenspan would aim to do this in a speech on Friday before a conference on Y2K readiness held by the Fed and the President's Council on Year 2000 Conversion. ``I think Chairman Greenspan is going to reassure us all that we are in good shape for Y2K,' Kelley told reporters. He was speaking after a news conference by financial regulators on the readiness of financial institutions for the Year 2000 computer problem. biz.yahoo.com FRB: Federal Reserve Board Speech from 09/17/1999 Remarks by Chairman Alan Greenspan Before the President's Council on Year 2000 Conversion, Financial Sector Group, Year 2000 Summit, Washington, D.C. September 17, 1999 greenspun.com FDIC Chairman Tanoue speaks at Y2K Summit Remarks By Donna Tanoue Chairman Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation Before A Year 2000 Summit Sponsored by The President's Council on Year 2000 Financial Sector Group Washington, D.C. September 17, 1999 "As of September 15, only 27 FDIC-insured financial institutions had Y2K supervisory rating of less than satisfactory. That is twenty seven out of the 10,273 banking and savings institutions that we insure." [This rating is primarly based on self-reported info from financial institutions. There are not enough trained auditors to verify actual status of these 10,273 financial institutions. But, the way FDIC presents this certainly sounds good, doesn't it?] greenspun.com FED'S Ferguson - Y2K Risk of Inventory Building still Open Question WASHINGTON, Sept 17 (Reuters) - Federal Reserve Vice Chair-designate Roger Ferguson said on Friday the impact of the end-of-millennium computer bug would be considered by policymakers if it affected the Fed's long-term goals. Speaking to reporters at a conference by the President's Council on Year 2000 Conversion, Ferguson also said it was not clear yet whether fears of the computer bug would prompt businesses into building inventories that could cause bottlenecks in the U.S. economy. ======================================================= The BIS (Bank for Int'l Settlements, Basel, Switzerland) is the central bank for all other central banks. Their Y2K view is not cheerful. In a fat report they say "some problems will be missed; new problems will be inadvertently introduced via the remediation process; even the best test programs may not detect all potential errors; uncertainty will remain up to & after Jan 1. In other words, it is inevitable there will be Y2K disruption, athough it's not possible to predict how serious or widespread this disruption will be." So there U have it. Central banks will go into 2000 not knowing if these systems are fixed. They know most are not fixed, worldwide. Compare BIS language to your local bank's PR rubbish. The BIS report goes on in great detail. If U read it all U lose any shred of optimism. The general threat is a breakdown of the inter-bank payments system. And once down, how to get it back up? BIS says: Y2K is "unlike any other disruption problem where identical backup sites can be activated. But any uncorrected Y2K problem is likely to affect both sites so the backup would not be a contingency." It gets worse. BIS, who says what neither private banks nor govt banks dare to say, reveals: "The inability of a major payment & settlement system to function smoothly, or have procedures for isolating problems, will intensify uncertainty/concern. In the extreme case, this could have repercussions throughout the global & domestic systems." Conclusion: the world economy is at acute risk. This is not some "doom/gloom" offbeat writer's view; it's the bluest of the blue chip banks. If your hair hasn't turned grey so far, read the following: The BIS advises banks to get the home phone numbers of regulators & govt officials so they can be contacted at night or on weekends to discuss the prudence of "closing markets & declaring an emergency financial bank holiday." This is scarier than any Y2K newsletter writer (except Gary North) has dared to say. And it's the real thing! U see, if banks go down, there can be no stock/bond/property mkt, or any other mkt, except black mkts of course, using cash. And all this is separate from equal risks from no power, oil, water, & no phones/fax/e-mail. U don't like this? Does that mean it can't happen? Or can it happen even if U don't like it? Try to separate wish from reality. Author Dr.Edward Yardeni, chief economist/global investmnt strategist at Deutsche Banc-Alex Brown has come back from Y2K retirement & says: "Y2K summary: Most have eyes wide shut....My prediction for a global recession in 2000, at 70% odds remains ... Stock mkt down 10-30% (that's 1-3000 DJIA pts). Recession major causes: breakdown in just-in-time manufacturing system, & in global oil industry. Y2K could cause another energy crisis." [...] Andy (2000EOD@prodigy.net) greenspun.com Cheryl 105 Days until 2000

To: Bill Ounce who wrote (94)	9/20/1999 10:36:00 AM
From: Bill Ounce	Respond to of 198

uanewswire.com -- Medicaid System at Risk of Failing in Over Half of States usnewswire.com To: National Desk Contact: Stephanie Meyer of the Center for Y2K and Society, 202-775-3157; E-mail: smeyer@y2kcenter.org; Web site: y2kcenter.org WASHINGTON, Sept. 14 /U.S. Newswire/ -- The following was released today by the Center for Y2K and Society: The Medicaid systems in 33 states and the District of Columbia are presently at considerable risk of failure due to Y2K problems, according to newly released information by the Health Care Financing Administration (HCFA). Medicaid, a joint federal-state government program, pays for the healthcare of over 34 million Americans at a cost of $160 billion annually. Medicaid pays for one out of every three births in the United States, and almost half of all nursing home revenue comes from Medicaid. Essential healthcare is at risk. According to HCFA, Medicaid is at high risk of failure in nine states: Alabama, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Mexico, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Tennessee, and Vermont. More than two dozen states are at medium risk of failure, including Texas, Connecticut, New York, Arkansas, Missouri and the District of Columbia. [...]

To: Bill Ounce who wrote (94)	9/20/1999 10:41:00 AM
From: Bill Ounce	Respond to of 198

comp.risks -- Hurricane Floyd stops trains in Michigan (Ed Ravin) [Problems in Florida stop trains in Michigan] RISKS-LIST: Risks-Forum Digest Friday 17 September 1999 Volume 20 : Issue 58 FORUM ON RISKS TO THE PUBLIC IN COMPUTERS AND RELATED SYSTEMS (comp.risks) ACM Committee on Computers and Public Policy, Peter G. Neumann, moderator ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 14 Sep 1999 21:00:55 -0400 (EDT) From: eravin@panix.com Subject: Hurricane Floyd stops trains in Michigan The US passenger rail company, Amtrak, has announced service changes due to Hurricane Floyd - as one might suspect, they are canceling trains to and from Miami and North Carolina, but some of the changes reach much farther than any of the hurricane's weather effects. According to Amtrak's Web site, because some Amtrak trains are dispatched from the CSX (US freight rail) operations center in Jacksonville, Florida (a location where they fear the seas will rise 20 feet due to the hurricane), they are canceling trains between Chicago and Grand Rapids, Michigan, as well as several other trains to and from Chicago. The Amtrak notice is at amtrak.com RISKS-8.70 mentions CSX's Jacksonville computer-assisted dispatch operation, and how it consolidated 34 dispatch offices into one big room. [Sara Thigpen noted that the shutdown of commuter rail service in the Maryland/Washington D.C. area caused massive automobile commuter traffic problems, well ahead of the hurricane effects. Richard Heritage wondered whether CSX has any capability for decentralized operation. (Apparently not.) and also wonders what would have happened had the hurricane actually knocked out the Florida dispatching center. It has been duly noted by various folks that this centralized control problem might suggest a serious Y2K risk. We are of course assured that "everything is under control." <pun intended by PGN> Incidentally, I am teaching a course on survivable systems and networks in the Engineering Department at the University of Maryland this fall (see my Web site). In that context, survivability implies tolerance to arbitrary adversities. Last week's lecture took place in a lightning storm that knocked out the PC controlling some of the remote feeds. The third lecture on 16 Sep was cancelled because of the hurricane. Nothing like self-referential examples to the problem under discussion... PGN] ------------------------------ The RISKS Forum is a MODERATED digest. Its Usenet equivalent is comp.risks. => SUBSCRIPTIONS: PLEASE read RISKS as a newsgroup (comp.risks or equivalent) if possible and convenient for you. Alternatively, via majordomo, SEND DIRECT E-MAIL REQUESTS to <risks-request@csl.sri.com> with one-line, SUBSCRIBE (or UNSUBSCRIBE) [with net address if different from FROM:] or INFO [for unabridged version of RISKS information] .MIL users should contact <risks-request@pica.army.mil> (Dennis Rears). .UK users should contact <Lindsay.Marshall@newcastle.ac.uk>. => The INFO file (submissions, default disclaimers, archive sites, copyright policy, PRIVACY digests, etc.) is also obtainable from csl.sri.com ftp://www.CSL.sri.com/pub/risks.info The full info file will appear now and then in future issues. * All contributors are assumed to have read the full info file for guidelines. * => SUBMISSIONS: to risks@CSL.sri.com with meaningful SUBJECT: line. => ARCHIVES are available: ftp://ftp.sri.com/risks or ftp ftp.sri.com<CR>login anonymous<CR>[YourNetAddress]<CR>cd risks [volume-summary issues are in risks-*.00] [back volumes have their own subdirectories, e.g., "cd 19" for volume 19] or catless.ncl.ac.uk [i.e., VoLume, ISsue]. PostScript copy of PGN's comprehensive historical summary of one liners: illustrative.PS at ftp.sri.com/risks .