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Technology Stocks : Discuss Year 2000 Issues -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Runner who wrote (9524)	12/27/1999 10:20:00 AM
From: flatsville	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 9818

Yardeni Warns Y2K Problems Still Ahead Fair Use/etc... NewsMax.com December 27, 1999 New York--The Y2K rollover date - January 1, 2000 - is just days ahead, and one major economist remains steadfastly pessimistic. Edward Yardeni, chief economist for Deutsche Bank Alex. Brown, appeared on CNBC's "Squawk Box" last week to say that the "alarms" were not heeded for Y2K and there is no use sounding them now. He believes, as he has argued for the past year, that Y2K will cause "major" problems world-wide, and will be more than a "bump in the road" - as many Y2K pundits have suggested. Yardeni says that Y2K will adversely effect the economy during the first six months of 2000 and it is sure to be a Dow-buster. In an interview with Entrepreneur magazine, published this month, Yardeni explained why his is a Y2K skeptic: . The federal government has stated most of their mission critical systems have been tested and compliant. But Yardeni complains there is no standard as to "what 'mission critical' means." He says the feds have yet to do testing on 40 major programs, and he can't believe, for instance the FAA can be compliant in time. . He chafes at the idea that Y2K problems will just be "local." Yardeni responds to such brush offs: "My response is that that's where we live!" Too many local problems add up to a "national hurricane," he said. . Yardeni has done some research and he doesn't like what he finds. "My surveys among IT professional have found something disturbing. Software patches from third party vendors for so-called mission-critical programs hadn't been provided in 20 percent of cases as of September." . Internationally Y2K could spell disaster. "I'm concerned about the state of oil companies in Mexico and Venezuela, since they got a very late start. Kuwait didn't seem to know it even had a problem until last year. The Japanese got a very late start but claim they'll be ready. I'm skeptical. The rest of Asia doesn't look like it's in good shape. China is at the top of everyone's list of countries likely to have Y2K failures …" Short-term Yardeni is a bear. He advises investors to "overweight government bonds, underweight stocks, and accumulate cash in the portfolio." After the Y2K problems pass in 6 months Yardeni believes such investors will be in a better position to get back into the bull market. On CNBC, Yardeni cautioned that Y2K problems may not be apparent in the waking hours of the New Year, but may surface in the days and weeks after as supply, shipping and communications problems related to Y2K surface. =======================================