Y2k Vs. Stock Market Crash :: essays research papers

The stock market crash of 1929 and the year 2000 bug are very similar. Black Thursday was not one of the brightest days in American History. This day was the cause of a nation downward spiral that closed 4000 banks, starting the great depression, and leading to stock that at one time would decrease 89% to the value some had bought. The cause of the stock market crash was largely due to over investment. The problem was people who didn't have the resources, investing from credit to buy into the short-lived age of wealth. Many people now are investing data in computers that is irreplaceable. They leave the data there assuming it will be there the next day or whenever they need it. In an age of information this might not be a wise idea. People are buying information on margin. They buy easy interfaces like Turbo Tax and Windows 98 that come to a computer user with almost no skill. The data is invested by these 'Computer Dummies';. It is the assumption that the data will be safe that will hurt computer users worldwide. It will happen sooner or later which is what people in 1929 knew about the stock-market crash. Many believe the most logical date for this data crash is January 1st, 2000. Many know about it and the possible 'infections'; the Year 2000 bug could cause to our every day life. Little is being done to solve this problem, considering it's monstrosity. One might believe that in the year 2000 havoc will be spread and a depression will occur because of this glitch. Another theory is that we will eventually run out of places to store data. Another date for an eventual breakdown would be February 29th, 2000 because most century years are not leap years. Many people have created ways to save the stock market and banks from another financial breakdown, however computer programmers have not invented a way to stop a massive data breakdown. The biggest problem is that the breakdown won't occur over a few days, like the Black Thursday through Black Tuesday did, it will occur over seconds. On Black Thursday 12,894,650 shares of stock were sold. On Monday Oct. 28th , 1929 9,250,000 shares were sold. On Black Tuesday 16,410,030 shares were sold. These three days added up to over $26 billion dollars of damage to the economy, and by the end of the month $100 billion dollars.