Don't hold your breath folks. Bad news is coming along presently :-)
Virtually every time I get news like this, some very believable source sends along the other news- Disaster. So, let's enjoy this news while it lasts. I hope it is true. If so, we must still make preparations as we have been doing. But, we can now have some hope that tangible goals are being met. I do believe this is the case in commercial areas. I have seen it myself. But, will the IRS and the Feds be ready? We have NO promises on this as yet, nor will I believe it until at least January 21 when the overlord goes back to Arkansas.
One thing I can say is giving me hope. The economy is in great shape at this time. If the average American does nothing to get ready and leaves his deposits in the bank and the Mutual Funds, that will help a lot. If Y2K takes any banks or stock and bond markets south, it will be too late for the investor to get out after Jan 1. So, those funds will be out there if the troops on Wall Street and at the Chase can find them. This could allow them to come back to life with some dignity and fake it through the chaos worldwide. Just a thought.
My suggestion-- If you want to stay invested, move a big wad of your nest eggs to Money Market Funds. This way, you can cash out a lot easier. And, if it looks safe come about November 15, just leave the funds in place and hang ten. You might make some profit in the thing.
LOS ANGELES -- After two years of doom-and-gloom pronouncements about the year 2000 problem, a growing cadre of Y2K experts has begun to recast its predictions of potential calamity into a tamer vision of the millennium bug.
This month, Canadian speaker and computer consultant Peter de Jager, one of the earliest and most vocal Y2K pessimists, published an article on his Web site titled "Doomsday Avoided" -- a play on his first article on the topic, written six years ago and titled "Doomsday 2000."
"We've finally broken the back of the Y2K problem," de Jager wrote. "Most if not all companies are working on this issue. They are fixing, or have fixed, their systems. They have examined, or are examining, their embedded system problems. We are, for the most part, no longer ignoring Y2K."
Edward Yardeni, chief economist for the investment banking company Deutsche Bank Securities Inc. and one of the most persistent drumbeaters on the Y2K issue, recently revised his estimate for a long global recession because of the glitch from a 70-percent chance to 45-percent.
"I've toned down the message partly because progress has been made," Yardeni said. "I would be happy to back off entirely."
Although it is unlikely that Jan. 1, 2000, will be an information age blackout, it is still entirely possible that serious problems are looming.
But Yardeni and de Jager are among the most prominent examples of what has become a discernible turn in the mood surrounding the Y2K problem. The alarms, at least in the United States, have begun to subside, replaced with a parade of repair statistics and completion percentages.
Even though the latest cost estimates are skyrocketing into the trillion-dollar range and reports from overseas paint an ever gloomier picture of inattention, there is a much stronger sense, at least in the United States, that the problem is being taken seriously.
Many experts say the changing attitude is partly due to "spin control" from companies and government agencies that have realized the panic and bad publicity that comes with poor repair reports.
The result is an often-confusing release of information that seems to be good and bad at the same time.
Even as federal Y2K czar John Koskinen was reassuring the public of the government's progress, a congressional report was giving a failing grade to such critical agencies as the Federal Aviation Administration and the State Department. Both promise to be ready well before the new year.
"Some of the stuff people are saying is just a load of hogwash," said Kazim Isfahani, a Y2K analyst for Cambridge, Mass.-based Giga Information Group Inc., an information technology research and consulting company. "A lot of companies, associations and agencies have realized that putting a positive spin on the year 2000 is vital."
But amid all the hype, there is a sense, even among pessimists, that things are actually getting better and that progress is being made.
"There won't be a systemic shutdown," said Alistair Stewart, a senior adviser for Giga. "You will have some localized inconveniences with some localized failures."
Some parts of the Y2K problem have turned out to be far less pervasive than previously believed. For example:
* Giga Information Group, one of the first companies to sound the alarm, reports that only about 3 percent of imbedded chips have minor problems. The percentage of chips that experience outright failures is statistically insignificant.
* The Telco Year 2000 Forum, an organization made up of eight of the nation's leading phone companies, released a report this month saying it found no serious problems in nearly 2,000 tests.
* Even the federal government -- the perennial sick man of the Y2K movement
-- has had its share of good news. A congressional report gave top grades
to such important agencies as the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Social Security
Administration, Environmental Protection Agency and Department of Housing
and Urban Development.
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