I live about 3 blocks from American Century Mutual Funds headquarters. Its right next to the little jazz club I frequent so I'm by there a lot. Me & my honey were out for a little Xmas Eve walk tonight and I saw something I'd never seen there before- a detached +7,500 gal tanker truck from a local jobber.

They might not be ready for bubblemania to burst, but I'd say the third largest mutual fund family is ready for grid problems, for a couple weeks anyway.

Merry Christmas TBers!

-- Downstreamer (downstream@bigfoot.com), December 24, 1999

Answers

Thanks for the post Downstreamer. There's a similar situation at Fidelity.

I've been contemplating opening a brokerage account with Fidelity next year. A few weeks ago, I was talking with an account rep, and I asked him how they were doing in their Y2K preps - I also asked him not to "give me any of that Y2K-OK, everything's great stuff. What are they really doing?"

His description of their preps at their Cincinnati office included generators, fuel trucks, water tanks, meals, cots & blankets, etc.

-- Clyde (clydeblalock@hotmail.com), December 24, 1999.

Good catch, neighbor! Merry Christmas to you, too. Enjoy the Plaza lights while you can!

-- Wilferd (WilferdW@aol.com), December 24, 1999.

My wife, an RN, was charged this week with overseeing a team that was placing red tags on all the electronic monitors and life support equipment at a major city hospital in DC. After midnight on the roll-over each machine will be checked to see if it is functioning. If OK, red tag is removed. If malfunctioning, red tag stays and machine is pulled out of service. This is the plan for determining Y2K compliance. Please don't get sick next week.

-- fitbone (happy@home.com), December 24, 1999.