Phones and lights will work, but fallout from the coming Y2K glitch will eat away at economies for months, according to the man heading up efforts to manage the problem for countries around the world.

Bruce McConnell, director of the International Y2K Cooperation Center, predicts "a growing slowdown in commerce as capacity is reduced by a confluence of degraded infrastructure performance and shaky consumer confidence."

At issue is the coding glitch that could cause computers to mistake 2000 for 1900. A lot of relatively minor problems, like credit card rejections tied to mistakenly machine-read expiration dates, "could really gum up the works over a period of time."

McConnell said botched Y2K code fixes, computer viruses that mimic Y2K effects, and untested contingency plans were likely to slow the process of "getting life back to normal."

The full story is posted online at www.news.com.