LA TIMES SPECIAL REPORT - INVESTORS AND Y2K

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LA Times Special Report:Investors and Y2K

Will Risk-Takers Take a Hike?
 
On Wall St., Y2K Is Sand in Forecasting Machine
 
Some Firms May Be Stockpiling as Insurance
 
A Pre-Y2K Checklist
 



-- kermit (colourmegreen@hotmail.com), September 19, 1999

Answers

Grrr. I read the first article. HOw stupid. I reponded to the reporter (AOL won't always copy):

< Computers may be fixed? And maybe not. Look at Congressman Horn's latest report card, for example. Will the lack of compliancy of the Postal Service hurt business? The lack of readiness of the IRS?

Is this mythological and to be iggnored? Speaking to someone who works at the postal service, the system is already a frail one with equipment breakdowns rampant and workers exhausted.

An analyst doesn't want to think of emerging markets as endangered? I don't want to think that I'm ever going to die, but I'm not banking on it.

Get a clue. It's NOT investor psychology or citizen psychology that will create the risk. It is the failure of computer systems--multiple systems, all at once, not one at a time.

Mara Wayne--a long-time trade journalist>>

-- Mara Wayne (MaraWayne@aol.com), September 19, 1999.


In re the second piece--"put metals in your portfolio"? Uh, get with it, guys, people are buying physical gold. This is a physical world, after all. This article was a little more realistic, overall.

-- Mara Wayne (MaraWAyne@aol.com), September 19, 1999.

The common assumption running through the articles seems to be that Y2K will be a one time experience that will be felt (if at all) right at the beginning of January, and from there things will simply roll on. The truth is that, assuming indeed that there are no spectacular problems such as a failed power grid on Jan 1, it may be a few weeks into the new year before problems emerge that are serious, due to various aggregated errors, transportation problems, foreign supplier problems, etc. 1-2 months bare minimum should be used to evaluate whether the Y2K problem is really going to be significant or not.

-- King of Spain (madrid@aol.com), September 19, 1999.

You're right, King. I see Y2K as being rather minor in this country during the first few days of 2001, but as the glitches start compounding and the flawed data starts to gum things up at an increasing pace through January and February, by March we may be looking at an Atlas Shrugged situation, only Atlas will want to work but won't be able to.

-- cody (cody@y2ksurvive.com), September 19, 1999.

You are all right. But, I think it's significant that a big mainstream newspaper is even talking about "Y2K" and "investing" in the same article.

-- Lane Core Jr. (elcore@sgi.net), September 19, 1999.


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