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February 12, 1998
Washington Post Downplays Y2K Threat in International Banking
By Tony Keyes
Sometimes my faith in the intrinsic intelligence of the human race is shaken. The entire Y2K matter I can reconcile with this belief and understand it in terms of behavior, not necessarily intelligence. However, when I pick up the paper as I did today's Washington Post, and see that the coverage that the DOW received for hitting an all-time high completely eclipsed the story coming out of Senator Bob Bennett's hearings yesterday.
The committee was told that approximately 700 banks were at risk of not being able to open their doors on January 1, 2000. The FDIC also told them that while they have required their insured banks to be finished with the "Assessment" phase of their Y2K projects by September of 1997, FDIC won't be finished until March. What's at stake here is no less than the worldwide banking system.
Wouldn't you think that warnings like those would receive more attention? I understand that the DOW hitting a new all-time high is big news. It deserved all the ink it got. My point is, where's the balance? Shouldn't we be more concerned with an issue that threatens to undermine our global economy?
Of course you do. You are reading this column on a site devoted to that very issue. Its all the others we about whom we need to be concerned.