Nothing would happen. A few computers would break down, thatâs all. Computers failed all the time, didnât they? As the chain reaction of events steamed across Siberia, the implications of their delusions hit them like a comet: the bug was real. With the shutdown of the nuclear plant in Magadan, the Europeans suddenly woke up and started to worry frantically about the hundreds of nuclear reactors between Moscow and Lisbon. Closing the stock exchanges and banks was easy but wasnât life-threatening. Shutting down waves of power plants in the middle of winter was another matter entirely.
Copelandâs phone was blinking nonstop, but he ignored it. Someone knocked on his door and he ignored that, too. His European clients were probably demanding his august telephonic presence, but he no longer cared what happened to them. On cable televisionâs New York 1, a United Nations representative from the European Union was explaining that the introduction of the new Euro currency had created massive software problems, and that countries and companies had had to decide whether to concentrate on the Euro conversion or deal with their Y2K problems. They chose the currency because that was hard cash and something they understood. Too bad for them, Copeland thought with sage nods of his head. Now their pig-headedness had caught up with them, and he wondered why the dumbbell Europeans had taken so long to close their markets. In any event, they did close them, and the ripple effect would be a complete shutting down of the global economy until the crisis had passed. How long that took depended to a great extent on what happened to the European nuclear reactors later in the day.
In New York, the consensus was that the exchanges wouldnât open. It was obvious and not unprecedented. On days when the markets were imbued with extreme anxiety, the exchanges remained closed. The Russian declaration of martial law in Siberia had been the first indication that the markets wouldnât open. To keep things interesting, traders were betting for and against military rule being expended to the entire country. The air crashes in Micronesia provoked considerable interest as well, because wrecks always affected the market; however, a few airplanes falling out of the sky wouldnât have a long-term impact on the global economy, and neither would any event in Russia which had become an economic cesspool. Japan, however, was a linchpin of the world economic order.
At 8:52 a rumor flashed across millions of screens that declared the core computers at the Central Bank of Japan were at risk of crashing when the millennium bug hit Tokyo at ten oâclock, New York time. If Japan collapsed, economic chaos would be unleashed. With the European markets already shut down, there was no way the American markets would open.
Chaos, meltdown, and no electronic fund transfersâthe key to the heist. Seething, Copeland typed in Docâs password and brought the Big Red Button up on his screen again. Should he wait until midnight and see what happened, or touch the screen? He fidgeted, pacing back and forth across the carpet, turning off the TV and then the computers. He was sick of looking at screens and hearing bad news, but he couldnât help himself. He flipped on the TV again just in time to hear the announcement that neither the NYSE nor NASDAQ would open. As far as the stock markets were concerned, 1999 was over and had ended with a giant bust.
Wall Street was stunned. Members of the financial community of Lower New York usually felt immune from distant events, but not this time. Buffered by the most powerful economy in the world and isolated in their private lives from the hand-to-mouth, daily struggles of ordinary people, they shared a peculiarly insular mentality fostered by a decade of nonstop prosperity. Many young brokers had never seen a down market. When the exchanges didnât open, they closed their laptops and said
Copelandâs phone was blinking nonstop, but he ignored it. Someone knocked on his door and he ignored that, too. His European clients were probably demanding his august telephonic presence, but he no longer cared what happened to them. On cable televisionâs New York 1, a United Nations representative from the European Union was explaining that the introduction of the new Euro currency had created massive software problems, and that countries and companies had had to decide whether to concentrate on the Euro conversion or deal with their Y2K problems. They chose the currency because that was hard cash and something they understood. Too bad for them, Copeland thought with sage nods of his head. Now their pig-headedness had caught up with them, and he wondered why the dumbbell Europeans had taken so long to close their markets. In any event, they did close them, and the ripple effect would be a complete shutting down of the global economy until the crisis had passed. How long that took depended to a great extent on what happened to the European nuclear reactors later in the day.
In New York, the consensus was that the exchanges wouldnât open. It was obvious and not unprecedented. On days when the markets were imbued with extreme anxiety, the exchanges remained closed. The Russian declaration of martial law in Siberia had been the first indication that the markets wouldnât open. To keep things interesting, traders were betting for and against military rule being expended to the entire country. The air crashes in Micronesia provoked considerable interest as well, because wrecks always affected the market; however, a few airplanes falling out of the sky wouldnât have a long-term impact on the global economy, and neither would any event in Russia which had become an economic cesspool. Japan, however, was a linchpin of the world economic order.
At 8:52 a rumor flashed across millions of screens that declared the core computers at the Central Bank of Japan were at risk of crashing when the millennium bug hit Tokyo at ten oâclock, New York time. If Japan collapsed, economic chaos would be unleashed. With the European markets already shut down, there was no way the American markets would open.
Chaos, meltdown, and no electronic fund transfersâthe key to the heist. Seething, Copeland typed in Docâs password and brought the Big Red Button up on his screen again. Should he wait until midnight and see what happened, or touch the screen? He fidgeted, pacing back and forth across the carpet, turning off the TV and then the computers. He was sick of looking at screens and hearing bad news, but he couldnât help himself. He flipped on the TV again just in time to hear the announcement that neither the NYSE nor NASDAQ would open. As far as the stock markets were concerned, 1999 was over and had ended with a giant bust.
Wall Street was stunned. Members of the financial community of Lower New York usually felt immune from distant events, but not this time. Buffered by the most powerful economy in the world and isolated in their private lives from the hand-to-mouth, daily struggles of ordinary people, they shared a peculiarly insular mentality fostered by a decade of nonstop prosperity. Many young brokers had never seen a down market. When the exchanges didnât open, they closed their laptops and said
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