Some companies are building back-up systems and finding complaint suppliers, but entire industries are expected to have serious difficulty. The telecommunication industry is seriously behind in its preparations, along with utilities and energy providers. This is especially likely to be accurate in China. The party has ordered all airline executives to be in flight on January 1, 2000. Even if its member companies are Y2K complaint, the public is dubious, and fears of bank runs should not be dismissed easily.
Financial institutions are especially vulnerable because of their reliance on dates.
Close monitoring by the FDIC has ensured that most banks are already complaint, and they are fully aware of the problem. NHNE predicts that the Fed will intervene and ration cash or else make it completely illegal. In a gathering doom cloud, NHNE relays reports that power failure at chemical plants could cause large releases of toxic chemicals. Government agencies are supposed to be relatively secure, but programs paying benefits on a yearly basis have already experienced trouble in fourteen states. He is typically apocalyptic because, although the authorities cited in the booklet are generally grim on the immediate consequences of Y2K, Utne sees sees the event as the opening shot of a New World Order.