Date: Wed, 13 Jan 1999 03:35:43 -0500 To: Izaac Subject: Re: landlord stuff ^ÓThere is very little realization that there will be a disruption. As you start getting out into the population, I think most people are again assuming that things are going to operate the way they always have. That is not going to be the case. " Sherry Burns, director of Year 2000 Office Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) "You would^Òt want to be in an airplane, you would^Òt want to be in an elevator, and you wouldn't want to be in a hospital...(government and business leaders) are not thinking about the contingency plans that they ought to be thinking about today, not waiting a year from now...(these) need to be put into place to minimize the harm from widespread failures." - Sen. Chris Dodd, Year 2000 Tech Committee Senate Hearings into Y2K, June 12, 1998 "I cannot be optimistic and I^Òm genuinely concerned about the consequences of the millennial date change." - Sen. Robert Bennet, Year 2000 Tech Chairman Senate Hearings into Y2K, June 12, 1998 "We believe that the Year 2000 problem is a lot bigger than the President and the Administration have admitted. We think it will cost more than 4 billion dollars (approved by Congress) to solve it. There are estimates as high as 30 to 40 billion". - Rep. Newt Gingrich, CNN- June 21, 1998 The eight countries (G8) said on Sunday they had agreed to take urgent action to combat the possible fallout from the millennium computer bug. We agreed to take further urgent action and to share information among ourselves and with others, that will assist in preventing disruption in the near and longer term. - Communiqué from G8 Meeting, May 17, 1998 "The magnitude of the potential Year 2000 problem in the regulated energy industries (electrical, gas, etc.) is not yet known....Compilation of this information is inadequate...Without testing, the potential impact of Year 2000 errors could cause...a ripple effect across a portion of the grid. - Kathleen Hiring, Chief Information Officer Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) "...there are ^Ñcatastrophic problems^Ò in every GM plant." - Ralph J. Szgenda, Chief Information Officer General Motors, Fortune, April 27, 1998 "There is very little realization that there will be a disruption. As you start getting out into the population, I think most people are again assuming that things are going to operate the way they always have. That is not going to be the case. - Sherry Burns, director of Year 2000 Office Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) "Let^Òs stop pretending that the Y2K isn^Òt a major threat to our way of life. There is too much at stake for such uninformed wishful thinking. Perhaps, the time has come as though we are preparing for a war. This may seem extreme and unnecessary. However, if we prepare for plausible worst-case Y2K scenarios, then perhaps we can avoid at least some of them." - Ed Yardeni^Òs keynote address to Bank for International Settlements, April 1998 "The millennium bug is one of the most serious problems facing not only British business but the global economy today. The impact cannot be underestimated." - British Prime Minister Tony Blair, USA TODAY, April 13, 1998 "If we don^Òt fix (the computers), there will be 90 million people 21 months from now who won^Òt get refunds. The whole financial system of the United States will come to a halt. It^Òs very serious. It not only could happen, it will will happen if we don^Òt fix it right... We have a very thin margin of tolerance to make this whole thing work. There^Òs no plan B." - Charles Rossotti, Internal Revenue Commissioner USA TODAY, April 2, 1998 Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan said Wednesday that the Year 2000 computer bug is already hurting the economy and has warned of bigger damage ahead. "Inevitable difficulties are going to emerge." he said. "You could end up with...a very large problem." The Y2K problem is a very serious threat to the US economy," says Edward Yardeni, chief economist of Wall Street broker Deutsche Morgan Grenfell. USA TODAY, Feb. 26, 1998 "Some people with technological expertise think the whole ^Ñmillennium bug^Ò issue is overblown. Don^Òt you believe it", said Kelley. "Comments that doubt the seriousness of the problem are dead wrong," he said. - Edward Kelly, Federal Reserve Board, member The Miami Herald, March 1, 1998 The Federal Aviation Administration is so far behind in it efforts to fix the Year 2000 computer glitch that half the nation^Òs air fleet may have to be grounded during the earliest days, weeks or months of the new millennium, congressional officials say. With 695 days left until Jan.1, 2000, top FAA officials go to Capital Hill today, where they will be asked about their failure to act more aggressively and the need for contingency plans to assure public safety. - USA TODAY, February 4, 1998 Some of the nation^Òs largest banks, already racing to upgrade their own computer systems to meet the Year 2000 deadline, are acknowledging another worry Problem loans may well rise if some borrowers fail to upgrade their computers in time. - Wall Street Journal, March 18, 1998 Regulators must not create panic as they push banks, securities firms and others to prepare their computers for the next century, a Clinton Administration aide told lawmakers on Tuesday. "While it is important to increase world-wide attention to the urgent necessity of solving the problem, we need to avoid creating panic and precipitous, counterproductive activity," John Koskinen, chairman of the President^Òs Council on the Year 2000 Conversion told members of the House Banking Committee. "No problem facing us is more pressing, especially since, unlike other Washington problems, neither the President nor Congress can push the deadline back," he said. - Reuters, March 24, 1998 In the most dramatic warning yet of impending computer crisis in the government, a congressional panel said Wednesday that 37 percent of the most critical computers used by the federal agencies will not be updated in time to handle dates in 2000 and will be subject to widespread failure. The new estimate calls into question assurances by the Clinton administration that it is moving quickly enough to avert serious outages. -The Wilmington (Delaware) News Journal, March 5, 1998 "Any company that neglects this looming problem is simply asking for trouble. If a firm is eventually hit by a Year 2000 breakdown, it will probably be put out of business- not by the authority of any regulator, but by the power of the market itself. And its not just the institutions I^Òm concerned about. Its the investors who do business with them. A Year 2000 breakdown could do incalculable damage to investors^Ò finances, and could undermine their confidence in our entire financial structure." - Arthur Levitt Jr.- Chairman, Securities and Exchange Commission ^ÑI would like to tell you that our hard work-and the efforts of hundreds of Y2K-focused consulting firms around the world-has pretty much worked, and that long before we hit the Y2K wall less than two years from now, the problems will be pretty much solved. I would like to tell you that-but it would be a lie." - Jim Seymour PC Magazine, February 10, 1998 David Atkinson, a conservative member of Britain^Òs House of Commons (Member of Parliament), hopes to build support in Washington for international cooperation "on a wartime scale" to ensure the problems arising from the Year 2000 computer flaw are kept to a minimum. Last week he discussed the issue White House officials and members of Congress, including Rep. Connie Morella, R-Md., Sen. Robert Bennett, R-Utah and Sally Katzen, deputy assistant to the president for economic policy. >From the Internet March 16, 1998 "I think the world is headed for recession." - Maurice Newman, Chairman, Australian Stock Exchange on the Year 2000 crisis Business Review Weekly, 3/23/98