What, Me Worry About Y2K?
by Don Wrege
I have friends who say that they don't want to be in an airplane on
December 31st., 1999 because it may crash due to Y2K computer confusion.
I feel the same way about The Market.
Outlaw Willie Sutton was said to proclaim, "I rob banks because that's
where the money is." Sounds reasonable to me. In more recent times,
during the Savings and Loan debacle of the Eighties, we learned that the
most efficient way to rob a bank was to own one.
We live in boom times, and the baby boomers are investing their inflated
yuppie salaries and historically huge amounts of inherited wealth in
stocks, mutual funds IRA's, 401K deals and pension plans. This, as Mr.
Sutton would point out, is where the money is.
As we spread our wealth between various investments, keeping track of it
all becomes much more complicated. (Especially if your own computer gets
"confused" around the turn of the century.) Three months into year of
our Lord 2000, the report of how your investments are doing may show up
in your mailbox a fund or two short . . . Will you notice?
If you don't, you won't be alone and the people who have your money will
be happy to keep it for you. For years, if necessary and forever if you
let them. When gently reminded, "Excuse me, but didn't I have ten grand
in your small cap fund?" the institutions will issue their pre written
apologies and the blame for the oversight will be placed squarely on
Y2K.
I plan to gather my holdings around me closely and carefully to
celebrate New Years Eve 1999. Stuffed into my mattress if necessary, to
keep what meager wealth I've managed to amass from going up in smoke, as
it were, at the hands of the people who brought you, among other things,
the Asian crisis, the Mexican bail out, the Russian prop-up and now
ladies and gentleman, the Y2K Three Card Monte.
Light anyone?
