do you think the bank will pay any attention to that number on 1-4-2000? They will not because how will they know that you did not remove all or part of that amount on 12-30-99? John Koskinen says to contact your utility and bank to find out the Y2k progress they have made? What good will that do? It will only require that personnel respond to your inquiry instead of working to fix the problems. Do you think that they will provide any useful information in their response? It is mind boggleing the amount of time and effort that have gone into preparing responses that say in effect we are working on it and making progress and our success will depend on the efforts of our suppliers. Organizations sending out this dribble then receive similar responses from their suppliers and complain that these responses do not tell them anything. Someone could have xeroxed 10 million copies of this message and saved a lot of work with no loss of information.

Prepare for 3 days, no, 3 weeks, no, 3 months, no 3 ________? What next? Have cash on hand for 1 week, no, 1 month, no, 1 ________? Electric power will be O K, no, minor interruptions, no, 3 days without, no, 3 weeks without, no 3 _______ without. Food will be O K, no stock up for a 3 day storm, no, 3 weeks, no, 3______? The factories are O K but if 1 % of the suppliers do not supply parts, production will cease. The post office is O K, some mail may be late, opps embedded systems are more numerous than we thought, mail may not be dependable. Is any effort being made to impose a moratorium on junk mail during the last week in December and the first month of 2000 so that the volume of junk mail does not overwhelm the whole system. If the mail works o k, lift the moratorium. There will be a sudden need for a reliable mail system to order and ship critical parts to keep utilities, phones, banks etc. operating and this would not be a good time to have the mail system collapse. The Clinton polls have dropped drastically during the last month. Is this Y2k, the bombing, the loss of confidence, people finally waking up to the spin and the lying or what?

-- Moe (notstupid@wow.gom), May 30, 1999

Answers

"It's the bombing stupid". (and I don't mean YOU, Moe). By Joe, I think he's got it!!

-- Will continue (farming@home.com), May 30, 1999.

I was an insurance agent for 15 years and when it came to the exclusions on the policy for cash if it was lost in a fire the pat answer was: yes only $200 is covered,or whatever is on the policy, is covered due to the fact that you can't prove that you didn't spend the paycheck you cashed on Friday at 4p.m. and the fire happened at 6p.m. I keep wondering how the bank is going to respond if their records are in a mess when you try to tell them you had a balance of X on the last day of the year at 2:00p.m. and now they say you have a balance of 0......on the first day of the year. Do you really think they will believe you didn't spend the money? Jo

-- J. Stang (tj4261@geneseo.net), May 30, 1999.

Jo:

If your account was the only one like that, they'd have every right to be suspicious of you. If *every* account they have is like that, they may evolve a different theory. In that case, a policy decision must be made that applies to everyone, and the few who *did* take it out and spend it will get a break.

Of course, if this same thing happens in ALL banks, the entire issue is moot. At best, everyone reverts to their last valid backup and carries on. At worst, the banks are only a small part of the collapse, money is meaningless, those not killed in riots will starve anyway, survival compounds (oops, self-sufficient communities) will be swarmed under, nuclear war will kill off the rioters, and the few surviving mutants will subsist on nuts and berries until the ecology collapses too, and St. Peter has a busy time of it.

Bacteria should be OK though, I think.

-- Flint (flintc@mindspring.com), May 30, 1999.

Conversely, what if the banks inadvertently add an extra zero to thousands upon thousands of random accounts? Do you think those folks are going to say "Excuse me, you gave me too much. Please take it back." Not likely. They'll figure the bank's loss is their gain. Imagine if they all attempted to spend that money before the banks caught the error...

However, without the post office (which I doubt will make it) there IS no business, big or small. NOTHING happens without the mail moving...bills don't get sent, contracts don't get signed, packages aren't delivered...it all comes to a grinding halt. This, alone, can bring us to our knees, making my previous comment a moot point.

LunaC

-- LunaC (LunaC@moon.com), May 30, 1999.

This reminds me, did anyone hear what became of Cory's friend with the extra $30,000 or so on his bank statements?

mb in NC

-- mb (mdbutler@coastalnet.com), May 30, 1999.

There may NOT be a Banking system by rollover if the markets tank, people get spooked and bank runs begin. My advice - get any moola out now - take control of it yourself. If I'm wrong, put it all back in Feb. 2000.

-- Andy (2000EOD@prodigy.net), May 30, 1999.

I'm in full agreement with Andy. Get lots of cash, in small denominations (and we are talking lots of 5s, 1s, and coins). Like Andy sez, you can always re-deposit it back to the banks. (Though, a horrible thought -- "like pearls before swine"....)

-- King of Spain (madrid@aol.com), May 30, 1999.

Andy:

I don't believe you're wrong. I wouldn't DARE to deposit any money after Y2K. Of course, I think the Depression will be in full force by then, so my opinion is irrelevant...

Got quarters?

-- dinosaur (dinosaur@williams-net.com), May 30, 1999.

I still think it'll hold together until at least late July, and possibly into August...but no later than October. the banks will tank and the market will drop faster than the Titanic did, and will not bounce back until 10 years of global excesses have been hammered out. By then, it will be a totally different world. Providing God doesn't step in...but hey...who really knows?

-- rick shade (Rickoshade@aol.com), May 31, 1999.

By August the ground war will have started... tends to focus you away from the markets and, uh, y2k...

-- Andy (2000EOD@prodigy.net), May 31, 1999.

I wish I had money so I could take it out of the bank

-- zoobie (zoobiezoob@yahoo.com), May 31, 1999.

It's going to be a long line at the bank looking for that receipt dated as of 12/31/99 11:5x:xx pm (and here I was hoping to go to bed early that night...)

-- Brooks (brooksbie@hotmail.com), May 31, 1999.