Quite some time ago on Aridni I wrote about a dilemma I had in getting a project done.  I didn’t have the technical skill to actually write the software myself and I did not have the time to learn it adequately enough.

Now that I am actively trying to restrict the number of projects I’m working on, I wanted to get these ideas out of my head.  They are not quite as powerful as they were when the ideas were born, but they might be of interest to someone out there.  If you decide you want to take on one of the projects, great!  Go for it.  I’ll even help you with getting hosting.

The three projects are right after the break.  They are ‘Hivemind Snapshot Project‘, ‘Articles of Organization and Operating Agreement Generator‘, and ‘Auto-task generation… thing‘

Hopefully you will find at least one of them useful!

(Continue reading this article…)

This last week, Aridni has had some server issues and we lost quite a bit of data.

We are restoring backups; however, the layout of the site is being restored and might take a little while.  So please pardon the mess.

-Todd

Here is a simple, yet thorough, explanation of the current credit crisis. If you had any questions about what was going on in the economy right now, this is a big player. Why is the economy so bad right now? Watch this video and find out.

The Crisis of Credit Visualized from Jonathan Jarvis on Vimeo.

This past year, one of the few financial instruments in the world was headed to the moon. Which one was that? The yen!

Yeah, the carry trade unwound which caused money to flow away from high yielding currencies and back into low yielding currencies like the yen.

Investors became risk adverse with their money. They poured it into things that had been beaten down for years because it seemed to be a safe place to run to. Thus the yen was a huge beneficiary during this ultimate “fear factor”.

However, recently I started talking to you about a possible turn coming in the yen and that the yen party was about to come to an end soon.

Things go from “Bad to Worse” in Japan

Since then, things in Japan have continued to unravel. They’ve had a 12 percent slide off in their GDP. The yen has risen 23 percent against the dollar which is killing their exporters. Toyota, Sony and Honda are all either doing layoffs or are about to do layoffs. In fact, Honda has even mentioned that if the yen stays at 100 to the dollar or under, that they may be forced to move some of their operations out of Japan. So this is serious stuff!

If that we’re enough, when the Japanese Finance Minister showed up at the latest G-7 meeting in Rome, he was accused of being drunk and unable to properly participate due to his inability to understand the questions being posed to him.

This caused him to have to step down from power just days later. This makes several finance ministers that Japan has gone through in just a short time. Governmental instability is never good for a currency. So these were all of the reasons lately that have surfaced as to why the party may be ending for the yen (in particularly against the U.S. dollar).

120 Billion Reasons to Sell Short the Yen and Stop Shorting Other Asian Currencies!

But now there’s a new reason to close out any long positions in the yen and to reverse course by shorting it.  Why? 13 Asian nations announced on the 22^nd of this month that they were forming a $120 billion currency pool in order to defend their currencies.

This is a powerful alliance as these countries team up together. This should send a building wave of confidence across these Asian countries as they see governments teaming up and banding together for the support of their own currencies.

Japan, China and South Korea will provide about 80 percent of the funds for the pool and the other 10 countries will fund the remainder.

While many of these currencies have weakened significantly and funds may have to be used to buy their currencies, the Japanese could always use any extra resources to sell their strong currency.

With these countries banding together in such a strong, united way…it shows that the story may be about to change. Formerly in 2008 and up until now, you’ve had most of these currencies across Asia weakening unduly and the yen having an unreasonably high strength.

I think you are going to see this tide turn. These things happen like ships turning and not like speed boats. However, I think the yen is starting its turn even now and it won’t be long before these other Asian currencies start to strengthen once again.

I also think this massive currency pool could help to prevent another Asian contagion like happened in 1997-1998 as many of the Asian countries used of most all of their foreign reserves trying to defend their currencies and had to finally turn to the IMF for help.

It was a horrid problem that ended up causing a ripple effect all around the world. So they are being very preemptive this time around in trying to stop something like this before it gets that far.

USD/JPY “Prepares for Takeoff” on Yen Weakness!

Therefore, I think the sentiment is going to shift away from a strong yen while other currencies finally start to strengthen. You will likely see the yen weaken across the board but I’m most confident in the prospects for the USD/JPY exchange rate going up overall throughout the remainder of the year due to this new vote of confidence and also due to all of the previous problems plaguing Japan.

At the end of the year, I think you will find that the USD/JPY is back up over 100 and headed higher. This will help Japan’s economy, especially its exporters that are such household names here in America.

So get ready for more yen weakness and dollar strength against it. Also, it won’t be long before other Asian currencies start to strengthen as the yen starts to weaken.

Today’s Guest Writer is Sean Hyman the head instructor over at www.mywealth.com

Quite a few entries in this Festival of Frugality, and not quite all of them made the cut! But here are some of those that did make it. Next week’s host is going to be Mighty Bargain Hunter. Enjoy.

Cash Money Life believes that Your Credit Score is About to Become More Valuable

Ready for the holidays? R presents Reining in Holiday Spending and Stress

Speaking of holidays, Ashley presents A frugal Halloween: homemade costumes

And since Halloween isn’t here yet, FFB presents Before You Buy That Halloween Costume.

Squawkfox presents Recipes: Gross, Easy, and Frugal Halloween Foods for Kids

The days are getting shorter, and the nights colder so Kelly from Almost Frugal presents Stay Warmer in Cold Weather: Five Frugal Tips.

What exactly is quality of life Daphne Lim asks? Three Times As Good, One-Third As Much.

Check out Cade Krueger’s offering to learn How Do I Find And Choose A Good Franchise Business Opportunity?

Ready to axe some taxes? Sam presents How to Lower Your Taxes

Amy @ The Q Family presents 13 Ways to Save on Gas to help you be more efficient with your fuel consumption.

A popular topic this week, RC continues with How to Save Money on Gas- Fact vs. Fiction

Redd Horrocks-Maier presents Frugal Food – Three Ideas for Frugal Dinners

Heather Levin presents some great Tips to Lower Your Monthly Bills.

Along the same vein, FIRE Finance presents 12 Tips To Lower Your Heating Bill

Sam presents 10 Smart State Income-Tax Saving Strategies.

Michael Bass presents a sneaky little trick How to get a cell phone with no i.d., no passport, and no credit card.

Tiffany Washko presents Helping Each Other During a Recession.

The Shark Investor lets us know how to Build Wealth By Moving Away.

Terence Gillepie presents How To Sell Your House Without Using A Realtor.

Lise gives us her results from a study on female frugality with The results: women spend more on personal appearance.

Check out this project from fwp DIY clothesline from (past) hobbies

David G. Mitchell wants to give us some perspective on how to Change Your Eating Habits to Save Money

Frugal Dad presents Being A Full-Time Parent Has More To Do With Sacrifice Than Luck and helps us take a look at what is actually going on with parenthood and money issues.

If you’re going to rent movies, you might as well be smart about it. Cash Money Life presents Blockbuster vs. Netflix

There are a lot of useful things that people leave by the curb side in the hopes that someone else will adopt them. Shadox presents Curb-Side Freebies

Wenchypoo brings us Frugality as a Recession Fighter and Depression Killer (L-O-N-G) over at Wisdom From Wenchypoo’s Mental Wastebasket.

Save On Travel: When and Where To Go for the Cheapest Travel Rates is brought to us by The Smarter Wallet.

Super Saver presents Finding Lower Gas Prices

J. Money shares his tale about how Bananas and Hair Spray tought me everything on inflation

It’s not just a fad! LAL presents Growing up frugal

“Wouldn’t it be great if, just like a fat-cat banker on Wall Street, you and I could call up the Secretary of the Treasury and say “Well Mr. Secretary, it seems like the risk analysis I ran for the cost of my child’s college education was WAY off, and gosh, thanks to that forecasting error, the amounts I reserved to cover tuition and other costs just aren’t going to be anywhere near enough. So… how about one of those bailout thingies you guys are so good at?” Tushar Mathur presents Looking For A College Fund Bailout

Jim presents Butcher Your Own Chicken.

Sun presents Keep My Money Safe and Let It Grow.

Ready to get a good deal on something? Free Money Finance presents Six Times It’s Easy to Ask for a Discount.

Rich Leverage presents How Much Does Your Money Matter to You?

Ryan Suenaga has a heck of a manual, The Internet: Repair and Do it Yourself Manual for Everything

Dorian Wales reminds us that The Credit Crisis Presents a Rare Opportunity for Learning and Experience.

sherin asks us How do you prepare for losing your job?

At one point or another, everyone needs to know How To Save Money As A Student.

Kris who happens to be in the know tips us off to Five Ways to Save on Wedding Food: A Guest’s View

Need to get out of the house? Aryn presents 9 Frugal Fall Entertainment Options

Until Debt Do US Part lets us know about how Renting is better than buying and here’s why

Mercedes wants you to know that living frugally and cheaply are entirely different things. So with that, here is Please Don’t Call Me Cheap

Back in December when I reviewed  Pour Your Heart Into It: How Starbucks Built a Company One Cup at a Time, I did not live in a community dotted with a Starbucks at every block, so I have never been to a Starbucks.  I was able to read the book and see the vision Howard Schultz, the CEO, had of the company.  I saw how he wanted the Starbucks image to exist. I wrote my review of his business techniques in the book here.

Now my commute to work passes three Starbucks Cafes, so I decided to check the place out.  My brain carried the image Schultz painted in his book.  The experiences have been totally different.  Yes the employees were great and the coffee was delicious–but it was the other things that were off.  He said they give real cups unless customers ask for to-go cups.  The baristas told me it’s actually the opposite.  They don’t even have enough porcelain cups to accommodate the seats in their shop.  Schultz said his business was green; the places I visited had no recycling for the disposable cups.  The differences between what Shultz said was standard and what I saw were shocking.  But it just goes to show:

A CEO can’t always be in touch with what is really happening in his company.  It’s like a king–does he really know everything his subjects are up to?  There are so many people and so many cups of coffee.

I feel lucky that I read the book before I walked in the coffee shop.  Of course, it means I was disappointed when I walked in while the average person is won over by the experience.  Oh well.  No wonder this book is on clearance at Amazon now.