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June
24, 2000
Resistance is Futile
While I may talk about "Shaquille O'Neal stocks", my brilliant business
partner, Margaret Jones, insists that we have been assimilated by the Borg.
For you non-"Star Trek" fans, the Borg are the most frightening bad guys
ever. They're pretty much invincible; fire at them and their defensive
shields automatically recalibrate to stave off your strongest weapons.
They "assimilate" whomever they run into in the galaxy, taking the best of
each race's knowledge and technology. Their hapless victims are turned
into living machines, mindless parts of the collective. The combination of
hulking, mindless drones and invincible defenses makes you believe their
motto: "Resistance is futile".
Margaret's contention is that companies used to be run by people, clerks
taking orders, requisitioning supplies and materials, sending out invoices.
Now, it's all done by computers. Computers have become the lifeblood, the
nervous systems, the infrastructure, of the economy. What happens when
you're trying to check out of a hotel and "the system" goes down? You
stand there. Worse yet, I was second in line to buy a lift ticket at a ski
area when the system took a half-hour off. We've got no defenses against
those mindless machines. They are the Borg.
The Borg are assimilating Old Economy companies as well. This is accruing
to the massive benefit of the American economy and to you and me. It's the
entire ball game for the US---our big-cap techs are the globe's
technological Shaquille O'Neals. These companies are the driver of the
stockmarket as well as the economy. The question is: Does Alan Greenspan
get this? He has the stock market in his crosshairs. If he slams down
liquidity, if he tightens too much, as the Fed is wont to do, the great
American tech juggernaut could slow. It needs to be fed, not strangled.
FOR OTHER INSTALLMENTS OF ERICA'S COLUMN
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