From psehelp@lyonesse.membrane.com Fri Sep 17 10:25:23 1999 Return-Path: psehelp Received: (from psehelp@localhost) by lyonesse.membrane.com (8.9.3/8.6.9) id KAA08312; Fri, 17 Sep 1999 10:25:23 -0400 Date: Fri, 17 Sep 1999 10:25:23 -0400 From: psehelp@lyonesse.membrane.com Message-Id: <199909171425.KAA08312@lyonesse.membrane.com> To: capn@lyonesse.membrane.com, dj@lyonesse.membrane.com, doc@lyonesse.membrane.com, help@lyonesse.membrane.com, sidd@lyonesse.membrane.com, wally@lyonesse.membrane.com Subject: greenspan on y2k Status: R Yahoo! News Tech Headlines Friday September 17 9:13 AM ET Greenspan Discusses Y2k Impact WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan said Friday there was a risk of bottlenecks in the U.S. economy resulting from the fear of end-of-century computer problems, but widespread disruption was unlikely. Speaking before the President's Council on Year 2000 Conversion, the U.S. central banker said he was confident that the risk of any widespread breakdown to critical business infrastructure from the computer bug was ``negligible.'' ``If only a small percentage of businesses choose to add to their inventories as a hedge, the effect on production will be insignificant,'' Greenspan said. ``However, should a large number of companies want to hold even a few extra days of inventories, the necessary, albeit temporary, increase in production (or imports) to accommodate such stock building could be quite large. Bottlenecks could develop, and market pressure could ensue,'' he said. Economists are unsure how the public response to the computer bug, which prevents some computers from distinguishing 2000 from 1900 because of an old programming shortcut, will affect economic activity. Inventory building by businesses could add to economic growth and inflation risks or a widespread technical breakdown and public panic may undermine the economy. Greenspan noted that the U.S. public was more sanguine about the coming event, which should ease fears of major disruption, though ``we are not as yet home free.''