From Contest #1
The Candidates (the official list):
James Annable, chief economist at First Chicago NBD:
"Will there be glitches? Absolutely. Will it cause a recession? Absolutely not. Will
it cause the end of the world? The question should be, 'What are you smoking?'"
-AND-
Steve Roach, chief economist at Morgan Stanley Dean
Witter: "There is not one shred of evidence that suggests that year-2000 compliance
or non-compliance will have any effect on the U.S. business cycle."
A "two for one" article from Fox News Economists
Debate Global Impact of Year 2000, July 1, 1998
Vladislav Petrov, spokesman for
the Russia's Atomic Energy Ministry: "We don't have any problems yet. We'll deal with
the problem in the year 2000.''
This from the people that cheerfully brought you Chernobyl, found in the AP article
Experts
Fear 2000 Computer Glitch, July 4, 1998
Sally Katzen, Director OMB:
"The Year 2000 Problem Will Be A Non-Event For The Federal Government"
What would qualify as an "event?" A meteor the size of Texas? Testimony
before the House Subcommitte on Government Management, Information, and Technology on July
10, 1997 and quoted on the y2kinvestor, "The
Year 2000 Problem Will Devastate The Global Economy"
Pat Buchanan or Bill Press,
Co-hosts of CNN's Crossfire: "Let me tell you something. I have been doing
the show two and a half years, every day we have started on time. When you got a deadline,
it seems to me, you get there." and "I'm a total skeptic on this, I think this
whole thing is a total fraud. You can't tell me they're not going to fix it."
Ok, we won't. Spoken like a true executive that's never managed a real
project, during Year 2000: Will the World's Computers Crash? CNN's Crossfire Interview
with Peter deJager, aired July 14, 1998. Attributed to Pat Buchanan on the
transcript but apparantly said by Bill Press.
John Koskinen, Chairman of the
President's Y2K Council: "Would we do better if I stood up tomorrow and said this is
a national crisis?"
Uh, yep. Quoted in Time, Why
The Government's Machines Won't Make It, June 15, 1998
And now the unofficial list:
all those other entries who's sources couldn't be verified, but we liked anyway
"I don't want anymore Y2K items on the agenda unless
you can give me target dates and deliverables."
an unnamed manager
"If we don't fix the Year 2000 problem, we're just not
going to make it. It's taking an incredibly long time to get that across to some of
our IT community and to industry. But all I can do is persist, persist and persist. I can
educate them. I can advertise our successes. Then, if they don't get it, we'll just have
to shoot them."
an unnamed armed forces deputy chief of staff