What few critics know is that at least a decade before his Y2K kick began, North (who has a PhD in history) cross-pollinated his discussions of biblical covenants and generations with his observations that history moves in 200- to 250-year cycles (punctuated by profound world-changing events such as the Reformation and the American Revolution). It was at this time, IMO, that North's Y2K expectations took seed. He began predicting that, if he were right about these historical cycles, some world-changing historical event would manifest itself around the time of the new millennium (i.e. 200-250 years after the American Revolution). Y2K wasn't even on his radar at that time. But when the Y2K scare came along, with it's threats of shutting down global communications and commerce, it seemed tailor-made to fulfil his expectations. North bought it - literally - devoting his many businesses, ministries, and personal fortunes towards preparing the world (and especially Christians) for a Y2K meltdown.
In hindsight, people behave as if Y2K just fixed itself. Did it? Or does North get any credit for investing his own money to sound the alarm early enough to prompt it's fixing? Yes, he made a fool of himself, and it cost him dearly. But in it's aftermath, what no one has noticed is that while North was wrong about the anticipated event, history may have proved him right about the covenantal cycles. He was expecting a world-changing event around the turn of the millennium - and in hindsight, 9/11 (with it's islamic terrorist jihads abroad and it's political machinations at home) may have been the very event he predicted.
I personally believe that God used Y2K to get a lot of people alerted to and prepared for the END TIMES. He has a history of warning repeatedly which man has a history of ignoring repeatedly.