Hadn't realized how many essays I wrote for gold-eagle.com until I counted them. There are now over twenty with several more in the pipeline before Y2K toasts my trusty 486. Actually, I'm in the process of trying todownload a BIOS/Windows 95 upgrade which may or may not work. At any rate, those of you who feel one of the benefits of Y2K will be I won't write about it anymore may yet still prevail.

These twenty essays covered several subjects before I became, how shall we put it politely, highly interested in Y2K-sounds better than obsessed I think. Besides writing about Y2K I've found time to write about Politics, Economics, The Federal Reserve and what I'd call Gold Bug Philosophy. The Politics came in "Clinton's True Legacy", of which the words are devastatingly accurate. It's safe to say that I'm not a fan of our child king.

The Economics came in "July 4th Surprise" and "The Recession Heard Round the World." If you had followed my July 4th advice when it was written in April of 1998, you would have made some money when the stock market fell to 7500. Heck, if I had any money and had followed my own advice I would have made some money too! The other essay also was very accurate in its descriptions of the Asian Flu.

Mr. Greenspan comes in for some deserving criticism in both "Why Alan Greenspan needs Depends Diapers" and "The Fed's Fatal Flaw." The only addition is that now I'm seeing more new ten dollar bills than I did even two weeks ago. So maybe Mr. Greenspan read my article. My vision of Mr. Greenspan, wearing his Merlin hat and Wizard robe, standing at the bathroom door trying to get the inflation bubbles back into the bathtub is priceless. Pandora had her box; now, Alan has his bubble bath bottle called inflation.

Gold Bug philosophy is first explored in my introductory essay, "What is Money" written back in March of 1998. A fine primer on goldbugism(is that a word?), if I do say so myself. This was followed by what I feel, and also some others who emailed me, is a gold bug classic, "That Golden Moment." This definitive gold classic was followed by my "Why American Gold Eagles are being Rationed." This being an essay that some have had trouble understanding the point of. To one of the usenet posters who questioned whether I understood that American Gold Eagles were sold at a premium to their gold prices-yes I do. It's how much above the actual gold price are you willing to pay? I still can't get some to understand that there is plenty of gold around, thousands of tons of it in fact. The only constraint is the desire to specifically have American Gold Eagles, versus Austrian, South African, Canadian or even Chinese gold coins. And not just any American Gold Eagles, but the smaller tenths, quarters and half ounces. Gold is $400 an ounce when you buy it in tenths. There is no logical reason to pay this premium. By all means buy some small gold coins, say an ounce or two, but buy 100 ounces of silver instead of paying 30% premiums on gold tenths. This being my opinion, my final opinion, on the so called gold coin shortage. Of which the two definitions of shortages, massive price increases and supply disruptions, have yet to appear. If Gold Eagles are so damn hard to find then why isn't the gold price $1000 an ounce? Oh well, take away the 5 billion quarters and the Politically Correct dollar coins and we'd see how much of a Gold Eagle coin shortage we'd have.

My final essay called, "Britain's Blair bashes Goldbugs" also warns against gold bug illusions. To be blunt, I've lost money on all the gold and silver I've ever bought. And I don't care because I bought them as a protection and not an investment. There is no way I intend to join the bank run horde. My meager stash will expand ten fold, if the worst Y2K fears happen, and I will survive.

Just as an aside, one of the vending machine technicians showed me the new dollar coin the other day. It seems they are being given out to companies for vending machine testing prior to their introduction next April. He said that he has to sign a log for them and that the coins are strictly inventoried. The coin is the same size as the detestable Susan B. Anthony coin, with a bronze/goldish hue to it. Looks like some form of token you put in video games at the arcade to me. He also said that paper $1 bills would cease to be made as of December 31st. While it is nice that the coin has a gold color, it has a cheap subway token feel to it in my opinion. To be honest, the Sacajawea engraving looks like a Neanderthal with long hair to me. All in all, I wasn't impressed. Now if only it had been made out of real silver or gold.

It seems that Alan has flooded the USA with paper fiat money in the last 30 days. News reports indicate an 18% annual rate of money supply increase, massive import trade imbalances(well beyond historical norms and off the scale actually), and media reported shortages of both pennies and quarters. The signs refusing change to fifties and hundreds are still prominent in the coffee shops. The looks of appreciation I get when I pay in ones or fives is still there on the minimum wage drones at other places. So what is going on here? How can Alan the Magician increase the money supply 18% and still have spot shortages? Simple. Y2K. Despite the media spin campaign, people really did mean it when they said they would stash $500. I did a little math at a web site estimating Y2K cash withdrawals. Briefly, $500 from the rabble and some withheld by small business and cash disappears from the economy. It's called money velocity and its creaming Mr. GreenSpan right now. We'll know for sure in two weeks.

As the Old Testament Prophet Amos says, "I'm not a prophet or the son of a prophet, but a sheepherder from Tekoa", so I say, "I'm not a Y2K expert or a computer expert, but simply a curious amateur from the Pacific Northwest." In the great scheme of trickle down economics there are those who are peed upon and those who pee on others-in this United States few are the dogs and many are the fire hydrants. This fire hydrant has no ax to grind, product, book, video or agenda to sell. I've simply looked at the facts as they appear to me in my Y2K journey and used reason, logic and judgment to come to my conclusions. In all of this, I've sought to be open, honest and allow the reader to come to their own conclusions about Y2K. If you don't agree with me, then don't. It's not like I'm going to commit hara-kiri or anything. Really.

Way back in the early days of Y2K, say early 1998 when I first heard of it and began investigating it on my own, I didn't understand its implications. I even emailed Ed Yourdon two or so times back then and asked him questions-even more amazingly he briefly replied. And I was a skeptic too back then. Back then I doubted that so simple an error could have so large an impact, over such a broad spectrum of human activity and with a global reach to boot. Or maybe I thought there was still time to fix it back in spring 1998. So my first Y2K essay was, "The Year 2000 Derby- A Computer Parable", an attempt to explain Y2K to people like myself who weren't sure what Y2K meant. While it appears quaint to me now, especially considering what my research has now shown me, the scene of bubba running naked around the racetrack is a favorite of mine. My next Y2K essay came months later in early 1999. This one was the single most important essay I've ever written for gold-eagle.com. I said it then; I say it now. I meant it then; I mean it now. If you haven't read, "Personal Preparations for Y2K", then stop reading this and read it right now. Even though there are only days and hours left, you can still follow some of its practical advice.

In early 1999 I had my Y2K wake up call. It was only after the "December 31st 1998 with a year for testing" scam was exposed a complete fraud and lie that I began to turn "doomer." A doomer usenet defined as one who sees doom and gloom from Y2K and a "polly" is a Pollyanna who sees no problems at all from Y2K. With two weeks to go, I think the current evidence makes the doomer cause much more plausible at least to me.

So in 1999 my Y2K essays began to take on a Y2K will be bad and this is why tinge. I've sent one of these off to the Wall Street Journal with an invitation to publish it and expose any flaws in my reasoning. But they never bothered to reply and certainly didn't run it. Y2K will be devastating to the elite because they will get blindsided by their own ignorance and arrogance. They really don't take it seriously even at this late a date. We're arresting terrorists on our borders with plans to destroy the Space Needle, overseas is likely to go into chaos and our leaders are still sticking with this 72 hour crap. Were they born stupid, or did they learn it?

In mid November I decided that the time was short enough that I could begin a more candid Y2K assessment. An assessment that would not have been possible earlier in the year for both political and personal reasons. Bluntly put, these recent Y2K essays would have brought down too much political heat on gold-eagle.com. Further, my personal life was undergoing some stress during 1999 which distracted me from Y2K. I was also continuing my own Y2K preparations as well as taking six weeks off during the summer to drink beer, grow a beard, have a mid-life crisis and write a yet unpublished book. So I had much more on the plate than Y2K during 1999.

I've written more about Y2K in the last few weeks than ever before and with good reason. No Messiah complex, but I feel it is my duty to tell the truth about Y2K as I see it. You certainly won't get this kind of information from the mainstream corporate whore press. "My Y2K Spin Control Example: GAO Report" showed that. Just last week another report was issued that supports my essay. It predicts widespread water and sewer failures across the United States and yes, we'll know for sure in two weeks or so.

Some of you have responded to my essays with e-mail comments that gold-eagle has forwarded to me. My essay "Y2K Global Military Implications" prompted several responses from readers. One gentleman commented that my essay was "very accurate and can happen." Another thought I underestimated the United States ability to "kick China's ass" if they tried anything in the Panama Canal. One gentleman ps'd "thank you for your website and for all the articles that have enlightened me over the past several months." To which I say amen to gold-eagle. com. One man wrote that he had a dream several years ago which confirmed my Chinese first strike essay ending with "I hope both of us are mistaken." I agree.

I also received a long e-mail from a lady requesting advice about what to buy from China. The brief answer is everything that you use in daily life. The United States domestic shoe and textile industries have been destroyed by China and NAFTA. So, buy all the clothes, shoes, bedding, T-shirts, etc. you think you will need for the next year and play it safe. Most of our electronics, computers and electric kitchen stuff comes from overseas or Mexico. Six months of food seems adequate to me, I'd concentrate on sundries, toiletries and the like. Don't forget heat and light also, but see my Personal Preps for a more detailed analysis.

She also wanted to know what I thought about Okinawa and the potential for nuclear radiation from Japanese plants as well as my opinion on a Chinese first strike on Okinawa. Well, I hadn't thought about the Marine Division on Okinawa or I would have included it with the strike on Yokohama. So yes, in my first strike scenario there would be a strike on South Korea, Taiwan, Japan and Okinawa. You'd want to kill as many American sailors and marines as you could in port wouldn't you? Prior to the e-mail and the Japanese nuclear plant leak I hadn't given Japan much thought as a nuclear meltdown candidate. But now, it's certainly plausible. Besides, North Korea simply has to put conventional bombs into South Korea's nuclear plants to cause massive radioactive leaks. All of this radiation would end up on the West coast of the United States. She concludes "I would like to say that it is God's work you are doing, to try and save people from hunger and thirst and great suffering." Underneath all my doomerism beats the heart of an idealist. Thanks for understanding my motives.

"Y2K A Global Time of Troubles", brought several more emails. Now I would drop the for so long from the opening sentence to make it more Churchhillian. Patricia "enjoyed my article because it definitely tells it the way it is" and "it was unbelievably on track." Thanks. Vronsky writes me that I'm on top of gold-eagles "hit parade." A fellow early 70's high school graduate now a programmer writes that he "loved my article." Yet another followed a link from the ultimate bomb throwing doomer Gary North who linked to gold-eagle.com with my GAO spin essay. He writes, "Doug, I'm amazed that I overlooked your commentaries... I'm glad to see someone is talking about the myriad adverse affects of Y2K...For all it's worth, keep up the good work." I plan to.

"Y2K Entropy, Synergy and Dam Movies" was one of several that Teague Harper posted to usenet calling it "one of the truly great commentaries on Y2K. Enjoy." My essays started several posts from Docdwrf and Ron Kenyon who think I'm an idiot. It was the evolution comments that set them off as they think I'm some kind of scientific Luddite. Well, I do know what an open and closed system is and I still don't see how adding sunlight to a primordial soup ends up with a human being. For that, you need intelligent, planned thought and purpose-aka God. My concept of God is best explained by the Old Testament's Daniel Chapter 7 verses 9 and beyond. "Behold I looked and the Ancient of Days took his seat. His clothing was white like snow and the hair of his head was white like wool....A river of fire was flowing out from his throne...I saw one like a Son of Man approach and be led into his presence...the Son of Man was given authority and dominion..." So, if you have a problem with my contempt for evolution don't tell me, tell the Ancient of Days sitting on the throne with the fire coming out from it.

Another gentleman wrote that "You have made sense out of it from the "common" practical perspective." This was always my goal. He also writes that "It is the best encompassing phenomenological perspective on the subject that I have had the privilege to lay eyes on." As soon as I find out what phenomenological means I will feel complimented. He could have called me a child molester for all I know. His friend also emailed me and thanked me for my "view on entropy...a very functional definition..."

"Y2K The Constitution, Martial Law and Dictatorship", brought an e-mail from a gentleman who said that "I hit the nail right on the head." "Just wanted to let you know that there are a lot of people out there who feel the same way you do." I certainly hope so or else America is doomed.

Finally, there is one e-mail from a gentleman who says that "either through embarrassment or fear I will spend the first few months of 2000 huddled in my bunker." Well, I don't own a bunker and if you read my Y2K essays you would find several comments that indicate I'm not a big bunker fan. I didn't even like Archie Bunker on "All in the Family." For the record, I have never thought that bunkerism was a practical Y2K response for the vast majority of Americans. I personally intend to usher Y2K in with thousands of other people in downtown Portland and see what happens. Of course, I will be watching what happens around the world both before I go to work and after I get off. And I plan to have my 12 gauge shotgun handy no matter what happens. Assuming the grid stays up, I should be just fine. What. Don't you believe Kossi the Klown? If the grid goes down, then all bets are off. I will be dead and not have to worry about things.

As for my being embarrassed, say what? What have I got to be embarrassed about? Am I embarrassed that I wrote essays that sought to inform people about Y2k? Am I embarrassed I wrote essays that analyzed the corporate lies and misinformation campaign? Am I embarrassed that I analyzed Y2K from a total perspective and not just the computer code? Nope. Nor am I embarrassed that some, or all of my predictions should happen to be wrong. I hope they are, because some of them are pretty grim. I just call the shots as I see them and let the fan blow it where it will. As a great signature says, "The penalty for my being wrong about Y2k is embarrassment. The penalty for you being wrong is death." I'll take embarrassment any day.