"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’t fix (the computers), there will be 90 million people 21 months from now who won’t get refunds. The whole financial system of the United States will come to a halt. It’s very serious. It not only could happen, it will will happen if we don’t fix it right... We have a very thin margin of tolerance to make this whole thing work. There’s no plan B." Charles Rossotti, Internal Revenue Commissioner USA TODAY, April 2, 1998

"The public faces a high risk that critical services provided by the government and the private sector could be severely disrupted by the Year 2000 computing crisis." General Accounting Office of the U.S. Congress

"I would like to warn that we have cause for fear. For the failure to address the millennium bug could be catastrophic." Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan, Oct. 7, 1998

"More than one-third of the most important [government] systems won't be fixed in time." House Panel Y2K report issued September 1998

"We're concerned about the potential disruption of power grids, telecommunications and banking services." Sherry Burns, CIA

...Worldwide crisis...one of the most serious and potentially devastating events this nation has ever encountered." Christopher J. Dodd (D-Conn.)

"These plans ... provide no realistic levels of operational readiness." The National Air Traffic Controllers union, in response to the FAA's lack of planning on Y2K. Also said by the union: "The [Y2K] contingency plans put forth are convoluted and vague ... and are nearly worthless."

"This is not a prediction, it is a certainty -- there will be serious disruption in the world's financial services industry... It's going to be ugly." The Sunday Times, London

"Failure to achieve compliance with the year 2000 will jeopardize our way of life on this planet for some time to come." Arthur Gross, Chief Information Officer, IRS, who later quit out of frustration

"Y2K could be the event that could all but paralyze the planet." Newsweek, June 2, 1997

"The year 2000 issue is potentially the biggest challenge ever faced by the financial industry." Central bankers of the G-10 top ten industrialized countries

"It is highly unlikely that all of the Medicare systems will be compliant in time to ensure the delivery of uninterrupted benefits and services.' -- A report released by the U.S. General Accounting Office, an investigative arm of Congress. In response, Medicare administrator Nancy-Ann DeParle quickly put out a statement saying, "I think we're going to make it.''

"I can tell you today that if year 2000 hit today, the electric grid that serves South Dakota would go down. It would not stay up, and don't believe anybody that tells you it would. Now, by the year 2000, it might, but today it will go down. Year 2000 doesn't come in the middle of June when the temperature is decent. It's coming on December 31 in the middle of winter." - William Janklow [Governor of South Dakota]

"Year 2000 is the largest software maintenance project you will ever undertake. Don't underestimate the effort behind analysis, remediation, and testing. In all cases, you own the risk, and the only way to mitigate that risk is to start addressing the problem as realistically as possible. This problem is real, and it's not going away by itself." -- Bruce Hall, vice president of marketing for Trigent Software Inc.

"This problem will affect us all individually and collectively in very profound ways.... It will indeed impact individual businesses and the global economy. In some cases, lives could even be at stake." Senate Special Commitee on the Year 2000 Technology Problem.

"Medicare and its contractors are severely behind schedule in repairing, testing and implementing the mission critical systems supporting Medicare.'' A report released by the U.S. General Accounting Office, an investigative arm of Congress.

"I cannot be optimistic and I’m genuinely concerned about the consequences of the millennial date change." Sen. Robert Bennet, Year 2000 Tech Chairman Senate Hearings into Y2K, June 12, 1998

"...there are ‘catastrophic problems’ 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’s stop pretending that the Y2K isn’t 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’s keynote address to Bank for International Settlements, April 1998

"National Guard units around the country are being trained to deal with phone system outages and other chaos that could result from computer crashes when the year 2000 begins." CNN News, February 18, 1999.

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."

"Our government is not going to get all of its critical systems fixed in time for the century change. The evidence for this is overwhelming.... State and local systems that process Federal benefit checks are not likely to be fully remediated." - Robert Bennett (R-UT) [chairman of the Senate Special Committee on the Year 2000 Technology Problem]

"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’m concerned about. Its the investors who do business with them. A Year 2000 breakdown could do incalculable damage to investors’ finances, and could undermine their confidence in our entire financial structure." Arthur Levitt Jr.- Chairman, Securities and Exchange Commission

"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

"I am generally concerned about the possibility of power shortages... pay attention to the things that are vulnerable in your life and make contingency plans." Senator Robert Bennett

"...10 percent of the nation's top executives are stockpiling canned goods, buying generators and even purchasing handguns..." The New York Times, Oct. 98

"Healthcare, education, agriculture, construction, food processing, governments... are lagging way behind in compliance efforts. Many of these will simply not finish critical systems by 2000." Gartner Group research testimony to the Senate, October 1998

"Our nation is in danger of being plunged into a catastrophic economic recession with severe business disruptions..." Congressman Constance Morella, Oct. 1998

The following is from the text from recent GAO testimony to the U.S. Congress:

"The public faces a high risk that critical services provided by the government and the private sector could be severely disrupted by the Year 2000 computing crisis. Financial transactions could be delayed, flights grounded, power lost, and national defense affected. Moreover, America’s infrastructures are a complex array of public and private enterprises with many interdependencies at all levels. These many interdependencies among governments and within key economic sectors could cause a single failure to have adverse repercussions. Key economic sectors that could be seriously affected if their systems are not Year 2000 compliant include information and telecommunications; banking and finance; health, safety, and emergency services; transportation; power and water; and manufacturing and small business."

"The information and telecommunications sector is especially important. In testimony in June, we reported that the Year 2000 readiness of the telecommunications sector is one of the most crucial concerns to our nation because telecommunications are critical to the operations of nearly every public-sector and private-sector organization. For example, the information and telecommunications sector (1) enables the electronic transfer of funds, the distribution of electrical power, and the control of gas and oil pipeline systems, (2) is essential to the service economy, manufacturing, and efficient delivery of raw materials and finished goods, and (3) is basic to responsive emergency services. Reliable telecommunications services are made possible by a complex web of highly interconnected networks supported by national and local carriers and service providers, equipment manufacturers and suppliers, and customers."

"In addition to the risks associated with the nation’s key economic sectors, one of the largest, and largely unknown, risks relates to the global nature of the problem. With the advent of electronic communication and international commerce, the United States and the rest of the world have become critically dependent on computers. However, there are indications of Year 2000 readiness problems in the international arena. For example, in a June 1998 informal World Bank survey of foreign readiness, only 18 of 127 countries (14 percent) had a national Year 2000 program; 28 countries (22 percent) reported working on the problem; and 16 countries (13 percent) reported only awareness of the problem. No conclusive data were received from the remaining 65 countries surveyed (51 percent)..."

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