Greenspan: I wouldn't ask an economist to solve a systems problem: would you?

greenspun.com : LUSENET : TimeBomb 2000 (Y2000) : One Thread

Much has been made of his comments on Y2k. But what does he know? I wouldn't ask a system person for economic advice. I wouldn't ask him for advice on system problems. This brings up a question. Who really knows. People writing code are too narrow. Same with people doing testing. Flint seems to be a thoughtful person. Maybe he could provide some clarification.

Best wishes,

-- Z1X4Y7 (Z1X4Y7@aol.com), October 23, 1999

Answers

To the best of my knowledge, Alan Greenspan is a programmer who has admitted as a programmer he was part of the Y2K problem.

-- the Virginian (1@1.com), October 23, 1999.

Which qualifys him to what... It is said he wrote some code a long time ago. He may have been part of the problem then, he is surely part of the problem now. Not because of programming, unless you consider programming the market to jump thru hoops programming, but because he is not giving you the implications of the Senate Special Committies report of Sept. 22 which I believe you can find elsewhere. Of which the last three lines of the execuitive summary indicate that though we do not expect society or the critical infrastructure to collapse, there will probably be local and regional problems in utilities and communications in this country, the outlook for many foreign countries (China, Russia, Eastern Europe and the Oil Producers amoung others) in not nearly so rosey.

I am not advocating that he go out and scream sell, sell, sell on the floor of the NY Exchange. I realize that if he sneezes there is a bump in the market and I figure there is precious little he can do but try to make the slope a bit smoother as those who have not educated themselves to the problem begin to catch up.

Those who have years in the market are talking about it leveling off about 9600. That is going to depend on a LOT of things.

If I wanted to know what the systems were going to do, I'd ask the systems engineers. If I wanted to know what it was going to cost, I'd ask the management. If I wanted to know how it will affect the market I'd ask Greenspan. So far he seems to be doing pretty much the safe thing, namely 1) Don't create a total panic. 2) Start to let the air out of the baloon ssssllllloooooowwwwwwllllllllyyyyyyyy.

-- Michael Erskine (osiris@urbanna.net), October 23, 1999.


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