After 1/1/00 many business (800,000 small business are taking no action according to John Koskinen 8/17/99 Boston Globe)will have system problems. How will the business community (banks and trade credit)quickly establish new credit terms and limits? It seems that extending credit will be very risky for a period of time, and this is the cornerstone of all business. No company operates on COD.

-- Steven Elias (elias@flexiblefund.com), August 18, 1999

Answers

Maybe it's time they started (operating on COD).

-- A (A@AisA.com), August 18, 1999.

Most businesses extend credit to their business customers on the basis of past experience...and a working relationship. If enough borrowers go under, the lenders will be squeezed and possibly go under themselves, which could cause a chain reaction. It's another domino reaction...

-- Mad Monk (madmonk@hawaiian.net), August 19, 1999.

Steven

It seems to me that in order to consider the fate of credit, it is important to consider the severity of the problem. The more severe the problem, the less chances that credit in 2000 will be based on something like it is today.

In 2000, credit may sound like this: OK (neighbor) I will let you and your wife and two kids sleep in our living room next to our woodstove and we will share some of our food with you, but for every day you stay here, you will have to work 1 day in the spring helping me cut firewood and dig garden beds.

-- Thom Gilligan (thomgill@eznet.net), August 20, 1999.

The too loose availability of credit, possible only through a federally ENFORCED system of fiat currency coupled with fractional reserve banking, is largely the cause of the problem we have now and will surely NOT be part of any solution.

Service and confidence that one can get the product or service one desires is the cornerstone of successful business, NOT the availability of credit.

A sign hangs in my customer foyer' that says "This is not a bank. We fund no ones projects."

I'm still in business after 33 years. This sign only elicits respect - and cash. Never a complaint.

Cash-and-carry still works - very well!

Sad to say: the 'druggies' [and others] have it down pat [so I'm told] :

- commerce is limited to only two-party transactions, face-to-face, in real-time, with the most intrinsically valuable commodities available at the time of the transaction. [whether that be cash, gold, tobacco, etc....] - quality control and complaint resolution are handled on the spot [in real-time] with the only parties involved to the transaction.

not a bad way to do business...

this is the way it's been done for thousands of years - still works today; only a government or tyrrant would want to change it to some other [electronic..?] method. Why? to control YOU; - your earnings, your spending, your savings and your life-style.

forgive the rant - the (too loose) granting of credit (to those who do not deserve it) is NOT the solution to any beyond-Y2K problems;

-- Perry Arnett (pjarnett@pdqnet.net), August 23, 1999.

Looking at our permanent fixtures and all of our assets of potentially worthless hardware and software, I sometimes wonder what credit we can secure in a post-Y2K world. At least, I will have a very cool chair to sit in when the bad news comes-- until they take it away.

Sincerely, Stan Faryna

"And so from hour to hour we ripe and ripe, And then from hour to hour we rot and rot; And thereby hangs a tale."

- As You Like It

-- Stan Faryna (info@giglobal.com), September 05, 1999.