Y2K just a minor anoyance to economy ???

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Tuesday March 2 2:56 AM ET

U.S. Y2K Expert Allays Fears At Millennium Meeting MANILA (Reuters) - The chief of the United States' millennium compliance program Tuesday allayed fears of a global recession which may be brought on by the millennium bug.

``The consensus of economists in the U.S. is that overall impact on the gross domestic product of the U.S. will only be two-tenths or three-tenths of a percent and they saw no risk of a local or worldwide recession or depression resulting from this,'' said John Koskinen, chairman of the U.S. President's Council on Year 2000 Conversion.

Koskinen delivered the keynote speech before 500 local and foreign delegates at the second global Y2K conference, an international cooperative venture seeking to determine the best practices to fight problems caused by the millennium bug.

The millennium bug refers to the inability of some computers to recognize dates beyond 1999 because programmers once used only two digits to refer to years.

Some experts have warned of widespread chaos after December 31, 1999, noting that if computers read 2000 as 1900 they could crash or produce inaccurate data.

``At this juncture there is no indication that we will have a major or worldwide recession, but I would stress one of the reasons we need more time working together...is so that six months from now we will have a better idea of what the risks are and prepare for them,'' he said.

However, Koskinen conceded that some economists' predictions of a recession may be based on expectations of a supply shortage.

Koskinen said the U.S. government has prepared contingency plans in spite of the fact that its federal systems were now 79 percent prepared for 2000.

One of these contingency plans include printing an additional $50 billion in cash. The U.S. has also set aside two to three months' worth of petroleum reserves, he said.

Koskinen also said the U.S. was not planning to impose any trade sanctions on countries which may not be millennium compliant before January 1, 2000.

``We have no plans to impose trade sanctions on countries that are not Y2K compliant,'' Koskinen told reporters after his address.

``The bottom line is if their systems work. If the systems in the country do not work, those systems will in effect be cut off from international operations and that, I think, is the ultimate sanction,'' he said.

Fears that security and military systems may backfire have also sprouted, but Koskinen said American and Russian missile systems were unlikely to backfire at the turn of the century.

``We have established that both weapons system in the United States and in Russia and newly independent states do not fire without human intervention. There is not that risk,'' he said.

[ wow I did not know they have sand dunes in DC.... how many austriches are there in DC?? ]

rickjohn

-- rickjohn (rickjohn1@yahoo.com), March 02, 1999

Answers

Good post. You almost have to laugh at what these jokers say."If the systems in the country do not work, those systems will in effect be cut off from international operations and that, I think, is the ultimate sanction." Well what the hell do you think is going to happen to this country even if for some miraculous reason we are 100% compliant? We would still not be able to work economically with other countries and that my friends, puts us back into an isolated state of affairs. Even though these spinmeisters in Washington can usually cause a person to mockingly laugh in sick disgust, it is interesting to listen to what they say and sometimes do not say. Got abacasses?

-- steven (sdeering@hydacusa.com), March 02, 1999.

Good post. You almost have to laugh at what these jokers say."If the systems in the country do not work, those systems will in effect be cut off from international operations and that, I think, is the ultimate sanction." Well what the hell do you think is going to happen to this country even if for some miraculous reason we are 100% compliant? We would still not be able to work economically with other countries and that my friends, puts us back into an isolated state of affairs. Even though these spinmeisters in Washington can usually cause a person to mockingly laugh in sick disgust, it is interesting to listen to what they say and sometimes do not say. Got abacasses?!

-- steven (sdeering@hydacusa.com), March 02, 1999.

How can Koskinen have the *balls* to say that there is NO indication that y2k could cause a recession? NO means zero, nada, none. This man is proving to be just as shameless a liar as his boss. This is bordering on criminal fraud.

-- rick blaine (y2kazoo@hotmail.com), March 02, 1999.

Y'all sure are hard on this man Koskinen. He was hired as a flack, and he's doing that job as well as he knows how. Those responsible for that policy decision may have some explaining to do later on.

-- Tom Carey (tomcarey@mindspring.com), March 02, 1999.

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