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

To: John Mansfield who wrote (1224)	3/19/1998 7:11:00 PM
From: Bill Ounce	Respond to of 9818

more on the March DC meeting From: "Jim Cobbs" <jac@wrlc.org> Newsgroups: comp.software.year-2000 Subject: BOFFO: Sen. Bennett at the WDCY2K Group Meeting Date: Thu, 19 Mar 1998 14:32:09 -0500 I almost didn't go: raining buckets when I left work, etc.. The speaker was to be Senator Robert F. "Bob" Bennett (R-UT), Chairman of the Senate Banking Subcommittee on Financial Services and Technology. Frankly I expected something like the old saying: Score at the arena: Lions 10 Christians 0 Boy was I wrong. The good Senator had an overflow audience eating out of his hands. Looked up "charisma" in the dictionary and there was his picture. He knew about every aspect of the problem and hit all the hot buttons. He may have seemed way over optimistic to many (including me), but no one seemed to care. He was "preaching to the choir." Even the follow up questions seem a bit on the soft ball side. I was too absorbed to notice if anyone left early, but I doubt few did. He got a STANDING ovation when he finished. One theme that emerged was that, in the end, Y2K may be a management problem not just something that Geeks can solve. Well managed companies will survive and poorly managed ones won't. The Senator seemed to say that this will cause a huge transfer of wealth both between countries, but between companies, investors and, ultimately, individuals. Not only is Adam Smith's "invisible hand" dealing the cards; but he has the only game in town. One salient point he made early on was that unless any bank is through remedial triage and ready to do active testing by the start of the 4thQuarter they will not survive Y2K. Period. No qualifications, no hedges. According to the Senator the bank regulators (and the troops in the field, the bank examiners) are singing from this same page. He indicated that Alan Greenspan and the whole Fed system is now up to speed on the gavity of the problem and are sparing nothing in preparations. To paraphrase the Senator, he was told by Greenspan that his biggest fears come from small problem occurring a "choke point" in the over all system and suddenly coming out of left field to balloon into a huge show stopper. Despite his stated optimism, at the end of his talk the Senator said he didn't know any more than anyone else how it would ultimately play out after 1/1/2000, but he will be keeping a bit of extra cash on hand and doing "some other things." Good Mormon that he undoubtedly is, I would be willing to bet he is following the church's recommending for having a year's worth of food cached. No doubt others with have more details and criticisms, but for my part it was a meeting I won't forget for a while.

To: John Mansfield who wrote (1224)	3/20/1998 1:54:00 AM
From: John Mansfield	Respond to of 9818

To: year2000-discuss@year2000.com Subject: Sighting: Wall Street Journal (March 18th) Today's Wall Street Journal has an article on page A6 entitled "Banks Could See a Rise in Loan Losses Due to Year 2000 Computer Glitches". A few quotes: "Some of the nations largest banks, already racing to upgrade their own computer systems to meet the year 2000 deadline, are acknowledging an added worry: Problem loans may well rise if some borrowers fail to upgrade their computers in time." A bank analyst says "I am convinced the industry is significantly underestimating the cost ... I have not confidence that the loan officers of the banks have been sufficiently trained to do that." Sally Chew

To: John Mansfield who wrote (1224)	3/21/1998 2:33:00 AM
From: John Mansfield	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 9818

March 16, 1998, TechWeb News 2000's Leadership Vacuum -- Our industry's leaders must end their silence on this pressing problem and take a stand before the new millennium arrives By Leon A. Kappelman techweb.com

To: John Mansfield who wrote (1224)	3/21/1998 3:04:00 AM
From: John Mansfield	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 9818

2000 bug forces federal freeze New initiatives set aside to fix government systems Kathryn May The Ottawa Citizen The millennium bug is forcing the federal government to halt any initiatives, such as tax changes or new pension rules, that could delay fixing its computer systems for 2000. ottawacitizen.com