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Leaders of the G-8 nations are planning to discuss the problem at a meeting in May. No doubt they will issue a report. The report will say, "This problem needs to be dealt with, and we are taking appropriate steps. There will be another meeting on this topic later this year." Or words to that effect.
The article hints that the problem may not be solved, so we must get ready for "a steady stream of minor and unpredictable failures which will have a gradual and debilitating effect on economies."
Oh, my! That bad?
This is from Radio Free Europe (Feb. 10).
("Radio Free Europe?" you ask. "The Cold War broadcasting organization? It's still going?" Of course. So is the March of Dimes, a generation after polio was officially eradicated.)
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London, 10 February 1998 (RFE/RL) -- The danger posed by the Millennium Bug, which threatens to cause computers to malfunction from 2000 unless remedial action is taken, is to be put on the formal agenda of the next G8 summit in Britain in May.
The decision to place the issue before leaders of the eight top industrialized nations was reportedly taken in talks last week between President Bill Clinton and Prime Minister Tony Blair. . . .
Blair has put the problem high on the agenda of Britain's six-month presidency of the EU, saying he is "shocked" at the lack of preventive measures by small and medium-sized businesses, and that the problem "is larger and more urgent than people realize."
He is reported to have agreed with Dutch Prime Minister Wim Kok that the problem should be discussed in depth at a "roundtable conference" of European industrial leaders in Britain in May. . . .
Will midnight on December 31, 1999, lead to pandemonium? One analyst says: "Most experts believe less in an apocalyptic disaster than in a steady stream of minor and unpredictable failures which will have a gradual and debilitating effect" on economies.
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