On This Day Pre-Y2K
Confused by any of the jargon you see below? Check the Y2K Glossary!
March 7, 1999 Permalink
I grow more concerned daily with the “doublespeak” coming out of Washington and also our national media. On one hand, we are told that Y2K represents a “bump in the road” and on the other we see nuclear power plants suffering failures.
In my view, the biggest single problem is not Y2K itself but the panic about the end of the year that will surely result if we don’t see a serious change in the media coverage of this event.
If we begin to see widespread failures in April or July then the public will assume that the government and the media have simply been covering up the real problems and this will trigger a full scale nationwide panic.
The best way to prevent this is for the networks to begin airing long format programs devoted to the issue and for our leaders to begin to speak frankly about the subject. The truth is that a lot of this is truly “unknown”. Why not just report that fact and encourage folks to take some common sense preparations?
Treat it like a hurricane or other natural diaster that “may occur”. Prepare and then hope for the best. That way, the panic can be avoided.
Everyday I ask myself why we could not get a single network to air a documentary that we spent over $150,000 dollars in making. Even though they routinely air nonsense subject matter produced in a “slock” fashion on much smaller budgets.
We took great pains to present the issue unbaised and to seek out the top experts in all fields. What other program has folks like Dr. Bob Alloway, Rick Cowles, Sen. Bennett, Irene Dec, and on and on...??? We travelled all over the country shooting interviews and conducting research...and not one network has even seriously considered running this program. We had to resort to direct sales just to try to recover some of our investment.
If I had produced a documentary on alien invanders or ghosts from the back woods, it seems I would have no problem finding a broadcast outlet...but not one nibble of interest in the most serious documentary produced dealing with Y2K.
Duncan McCollough, former chief council for Citicorp appears in our documentary and his comment about the lack of media coverage and the government’s lack of leadership still rings in my ears...
“I think if we don’t begin to see this issue treated seriously soon.. we are in the realm of a cover up”. Perhaps he was right.
I am not prone to seeing conspiracies behind every action that the government takes, in fact, I find the leadership of this country to be so ineffective as to make such theories seem totally unlikely, however, I am starting to think that information about Y2K is being with held from us.
In any event, we will continue to update both our web site and our documentary until the very last day of the year. Hopefully, a network will approach us soon, but until then we will continue to attempt to market our program via the web and at Y2K events.
At least we can say we tried...
—Les Rayburn, Time Bomb 2000 Forums (LUSENET), 03/07/99
Harry S. Dent wrote a book called “The Great Boom Ahead” back in ‘93. He argued that the U.S. economic cycle can be predicted by looking at the demographics of U.S. citizens. Since we have a baby boomer demographic ‘bulge’, their spending has a large effect. Dent showed that our earning/spending peaks about age 46. So, when are baby boomers reaching that age? Starting in the early 90’s. The book predicted a long-term bull market, lasting until about 2007.
BUT, he goes on to point out that the tide will turn thereafter, and we’ll head into a deep recession/depression lasting more than 10 years. This is because baby boomers begin retiring in large numbers about then. They (1) earn less, (2) produce less, (3) spend less, and (4) pull money out of the markets rather than putting it into the markets.
Of course, Dent didn’t factor in Y2K. And if the Y2K recession lasts too long, it will run into the 2007 demographics-induced recession. It’s possible (I hope not) that the Dow high this year could stand for 25 years or more.
—B. Ear, Time Bomb 2000 Forums (LUSENET), 03/07/99
