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Strategies & Market Trends : The 56 Point TA; Charts With an Attitude -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: SJF who wrote (7360)	11/8/1997 12:46:00 PM
From: Andrew H	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 79351

SJF--from what I read, the problem is a lot bigger than a few small companies that don't recognize the problem. I understand the Federal governemnt is way behind as well. Of course I can think of worse things than the Fed breaking down for a while!

To: SJF who wrote (7360)	11/8/1997 5:40:00 PM
From: Andrew H	Respond to of 79351

Copied from TPRO thread: >>HOUSE TESTIMONY - GLOBAL DIMENSIONS OF THE MILLENIUM BUG Tony Keyes Testimony to Subcommittee on Technology, Committee on Science (US House of Representatives - November 4, 1997 - Excerpts) =============================================================== The reality of our current circumstances is truly sobering. Almost no one believes that the US will enjoy 100% success in converting our government and private sector infrastructure on time ........... Reports issued over the last thirty days show that many of our largest trading partners are six to eighteen months, behind us. For example: The office of the Auditor General for the Canadian government issued a report last month on the status of Year 2000 remediation there. The report said, "urgent and aggressive action is needed" to solve this problem on time. "It may already be too late to avoid failures in some critical systems", the report went on to say. Canada is our largest trading partner, and our number two supplier of oil. Their failure to conduct business as usual would weigh significantly on our economy. Japan, our number two trading partner is already in the midst of a recession. Their banks have been fighting to maintain solvency. Surely more will fall as a result of the breakdown in the Asian marketplace. Morris Goldstein of the Institute for International Economics here in Washington said that, "[Japan] was set for a truly world-class banking crisis". Our financial community here in the US is becoming increasingly concerned by the lack of assurances they are getting from Japanese banks that they will be ready in time. The Mexican government, our third largest trading partner, appointed a Year 2000 task force just two weeks ago, "to look into the problem". They had their first meeting on October 30th. The private sector there has only just begun to talk seriously about the problem. A recent survey conducted in the UK and sponsored by Cap Gemini indicated that ten percent (10%) of businesses would fail to meet the Y2K deadline. As some in this group are very large businesses, nearly thirty percent (30%) of the country's GDP would be threatened. Small and medium size enterprises are of particular concern as they remain complacent, in spite of the fact that demand will exceed supply for skilled labor by April of 1998, according to a story which appeared in PA News. Germany, France and Italy are trailing the US significantly in their efforts to address the issue. In fact, the entire European community is behind in their work as most of their time and resources has been focused on the significant challenge of converting to a single currency by the turn of the century. In Australia, The RBA (similar to our Federal Reserve Bank) has said, "many banks do not seem to have a good feel for the size of their [foreign exchange] settlement risk". The RBA expressed concern that so much of the work remains uncompleted. From the standpoint of political instability and environmental safety, Russia may pose the greatest threat. Last month I was asked for help by a private, US based foundation, known as the Dupuy Institute. They were working at the behest of former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev to raise private funding here in the US to address the Y2K problem in Russia. Mr. Gorbachev knew that Y2K wasn't getting the kind of attention it deserved. Unfortunately, Mr. Gorbachev ultimately decided not to pursue his original agenda, and the problem still exists. Many worry about Russia's vulnerable nuclear power plants, its largely unpaid military, and the world's dependency upon the country's natural resources ......... Even though we are behind in our efforts and we are still attempting to increase the sense of urgency among government and private sector officials, we must not ignore the rest of the world. To that end, I respectfully ask the President to appoint a US, Y2K Czar, and use the power of his office to call for an international, Y2K working group to be established. y2kinvestor.com I was reading his testimony in NYC as he was presenting it to the committee in Washington. I'm fortunate to be included in his circle of friends and associates. ================================================================== I would HIGHLY suggest that you purchase Tony Keye's book, Year 2000 Computer Crisis: An Investor's Survival Guide. y2kinvestor.com ALL: Several months ago (on the Y2K Impact Thread) I provided a link which had formatted letters for government officials AND direct email links for these officials. If someone knows the link, PLEASE post it there. With all of the new research I'm involved in, I'm unable to go back and try to locate this. We REALLY need to push our government on this issue. Time's running out. <<