On This Day Pre-Y2K
Confused by any of the jargon you see below? Check the Y2K Glossary!
February 11, 1999 Permalink
Here is my take on the best case scenario......... Okay, the lights stay on, food remains accesable, no riots, but.... a panic is sure to ensue regarding peoples savings, so consequently people take their money out of banks for fear of losing it. The government resupplies the lost money from the “new” money they have printed. However this actually increases the money in circulation because people will still be spending the money they took out, so the currency is actually worth less because there is more of it. Thus creating a hyperinflation state. Less buying power equals less goods purchased which equals loss of jobs, which equals depression. In will step the government with a solution! Give them 10 of your hyperinflated worthless dollars, and in return you’ll get 1 fresh new magnetic striped NWO dollar. Someone once wrote that the best way to control the masses is to create a terror, allow it to happen, and provide the solution. Call it armageddon, NWO, Majestic 12, end of the world, whatever! In any case we’re screwed.
—Loco, Time Bomb 2000 Forum (LUSENET), 02/11/99
Bankinfo.com is a Web site for bankers. It tells them how to improve services. It has a detailed page just on y2k.
This is the most detailed bank page I have seen on y2k. It has so many suggestions as to how to calm customers’ fears. It lacks one thing, however: any indication of the y2k status of the industry, including the name of any y2k-compliant bank anywhere on earth. (The reference to BankBoston does not say that it’s actually compliant. Neither does BankBoston.)
You really should click through. Then click through some of the links. You will discover the many PR tactics used by your local bank -- if it’s y2k-savvy -- to persuade you that everything is just fine.
If you spend some time on this page, your confidence in the banking industry may not survive, assuming you have any at this late date.
Here is one of the links. It takes you to a document titled, “Combatting Customer Paranoia”. I can assure you, I am even more paranoid now that I’ve read it. But you should read it. See if your banker is using some of these techniques. Notice what it does not recommend: telling the customer that your bank is not compliant, no bank is compliant, and we have less than a year to go. I don’t see this approach. You know. The truth. “If the worldwide banking industry does not make the deadline, Mr. Customer, you risk losing every dime you have on deposit here. But don’t worry. All the money market funds use banks, too, so they are no safer than we are.”
Here are the two sentences that the bankers must learn to deal with:
1. “Our computer is down.”
2. “Give me my money.”
The document does not deal with either of them.
—Gary North, garynorth.com, 02/11/99
