-------- Hopefully, you've all seen the NYTimes piece. If not, it's summarized on another thread below --------------

http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/99/02/biztech/articles/09panic.html

"Year 2000 Glitch Meets People Problem: Surprisingly Early Outbreak of Panic "

------- About the Federal 800 number ------------

http://www.jrnl.com/news/99/Feb/jrn98090299.html

Federal info hot line expands to calm Y2K fears

By DAVID DISHNEAU Associated Press

CUMBERLAND - Here's a Year 2000 puzzler: Why not use old milk jugs and soda pop bottles to store emergency water supplies?

The answer - they're not sterile - is as plain to Joseph Snyder as the nose on a worry wart's face.

He's a Y2K know-it-all, trained to answer questions about the Millennium Bug posed by callers to the government's toll-free Federal Information Center.

The center, housed in a two-story brick building in the Appalachian foothills, has added 60 lines just for Y2K queries. The special number, 888-USA-4-Y2K, has logged more than 50,000 calls in the month since the Clinton administration announced it, according to Biospherics Inc., the Beltsville-based contractor that runs the center.

``People want reassurance, really, about what's going to happen,'' Snyder said.

The answer: not much, according to center staffers who have been taking Y2K calls.

``We want to provide the facts to the public and our reading of the facts is that the public should be calmed. We see no reason for anyone to panic,'' said center manager Stephen A. Smith.

Anne Haynal advocates ``personal preparedness'' to callers.

For most people, that means storing a couple weeks' worth of food, which many families already have in their cupboards.

------- Remember, Economists don't know how to subtract --------------

http://dailynews.yahoo.com/headlines/tc/story.html?s=v/nm/19990208/tc/millennium_6.html

Economy Set For Roller-Coaster Millennium Ride

By Alan Wheatley, European Economics Correspondent

LONDON (Reuters) - Crashing computers will bring vital industries to a halt when the clock chimes for the Year 2000, and the domino effect could tip the world into recession.

Alternatively, so much time and effort has been poured into tackling the fabled millennium computer bug that the dawn of the new century will turn out to be an economic yawn.

In a nutshell, the best brains in economics can only take a wild stab at the consequences for output and jobs of the Year 2000 (Y2K) problem -- the fear that old computers will go haywire because they will fail to distinguish 2000 from 1900.

The best guess, though, is that there will be disruptions to activity that could give policymakers headaches but will not cause severe dislocations.

``We do not believe this will lead to a global recession, but we are very concerned that there will be some disruption,'' said Vladimir Lopez-Bassols, who has compiled a Y2K survey for the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).

``From the information that keeps coming in, it's especially worrisome in some developing countries,'' he said.

The OECD decided not to try to quantify the bug's economic impact and no less a number-cruncher than Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan says the task is simply impossible.

------ Oh, this is reassuring! ----------------

http://www.montrealgazette.com/PAGES/990209/2260227.html

"Don't fret over Y2K, nuclear watchdog says" from the Montreal Gazette

right next to:

http://www.press.co.nz:80/06/990209c5.htm

"Nuclear false alarm a worry" from The Press - New Zealand

-- pshannon (pshannon@inch.com), February 09, 1999

Answers

Thanks pshannon!

Well, I like those nuclear feel food news. I believe them with all my heart, because I want to be asleep if nuclear calamities happen. I don't want to eat my stomach and miss on sleep for the next 10 months. Nothing I can do about that, so I am a happy Polyanna on the nukes issue :-)

-- Chris (catsy@pond.com), February 09, 1999.