d[-_-]b’s Neighborhood

First, we're happy to announce that the team has identified and fixed the issue with the YouTube conduit; you can now find and add videos from YouTube to your library and posts. As always, thanks for your patience!

The other news we have today is about a new addition to the Six Apart family: TypePad Micro, a new free level of TypePad that is streamlined for microblogging. We see a new form of blogging emerging that lives between the quick status updates of Twitter and Facebook and the long-form posts of "classic" blogging; TypePad Micro is designed to meet that need. You can read more about TypePad Micro in Chris Alden's post on the Everything TypePad blog.

TypePad Micro

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A lot of the new capabilities we've added to TypePad this year were actually inspired by some of the best things about Vox: favoriting, member profiles, a dashboard to follow other bloggers, and easy ways to post content from other social media sites. But the things that make Vox different from TypePad are still there: Vox has always been -- and still is -- the best place for "friends and family" blogging, where you're in control over who sees what. TypePad, on the other hand, is built for the blogger who wants, no, craves, attention.

Do you have a passion or interest you want to share with people beyond your Vox neighborhood? If so, we'd love it if you tried out TypePad Micro. Maybe you've always wanted to start that obsessive blog that's just about waffle restaurants. Or want a place to share videos of your favorite band (Jonas Brothers, anyone? Anyone? ...). TypePad Micro's great for those topic-specific blogs. Take it for a spin and let us know what you think.

On the Vox front, our designers are working on some cool new themes (coming soon!). We'd also love to hear your thoughts about where we should take Vox in the coming year. What are the key things you'd like to see for Vox? If you've had a chance to use TypePad this year, what are the features there that we should bring over to Vox? And, if you're thinking big thoughts, how could we connect the Vox and TypePad communities in order to bring together bloggers and their shared passions? Your feedback is really important to us, so please leave a comment here, or shoot me a message.

And again, thanks for your patience as we found and fixed the YouTube bug!

~ daisy

As many of you have noticed, the YouTube Conduit is not working. I am so sorry about this; I know how frustrating it is.

The team is looking into how to get this fixed and I will update you as soon as I hear something. In the meantime, not all is lost... There is a work-around for posting videos.

When you're in the Compose Screen, just click on "embed." Ignore the fact that it says "Widget" before everything because you can definitely use this to embed videos as well. You'll just need to input the embed code from the video, enter a title (if you want) and hit OK.

It might not show up perfectly in your compose screen, but when you hit "Save," your video should appear just the way you wanted it to.

Hopefully this will allow you to keep posting videos while we figure out what's happening on our end.

As always, thanks for your patience.

~daisy

Recently there has been a lot to get worried about.
Since the great crash of 2008 - which it will certainly be called - or stockgate perhaps? We have all tightened our belts and reigned in spending.

As you may know I predicted some of this in 2007 and once my ego became so big that I couldn't get it out of the door I forgot what I was saying and made some catastrophic errors of judgment. The ramifications of this have been a year of glum despondency intertwined with occasional bouts of despair. I know that is my burden to bear but it has also been a lot of other peoples as well. In short, we have all been beaten by those lovely bankers.

Now I know a lot of you will blame the politicians for bailing them out - I don't blame them for saving us but I do blame them for not nailing their knackers to the nearest tree. But now I have another warning for you that I hope is prescient but not too terrifying.

I want to warn you about the carry trade which will be the next big issue to rise on the agenda and this is one we certainly can blame our governments for.

The thing is the carry trade is not some dull concept. It is real and booming and becoming ever more dangerous.

Here is how it works:

Bank 1 (usually the USA) lends money at low interest rates
People borrow
They swap their debt with its low interest rates for another currency with higher rates eg Aus Dollar
They get increased interest and effectively a pot of free money

Simple so far....

The surge of money from US$ to another currency then makes the markets devalue the US$ because no one wants it.
That means that you get more and more AU$ for every US$. In other words it cheapens the value of US$'s the longer it goes on.

Now this reinforcing behaviour is very lucrative because each dollar you borrow and sell makes more interest and the more people who do it the better it gets. (Sound familiar Mr Madoff?)

Until - Until, something happens that makes borrowers panic. Simply this could be an increase in the US$ interest rate or it could be a cut in AU$ rates, or it could be a shock like a bombing, oil price hikes or any one of a thousand things.

When that happens the over valued AU$ drops and the US$ increases. Suddenly imports are cheaper but exports are ruined. People who miss the timing are left with US$ debts and AU$ assets that are devalued. (All this is like gears in a car - use them to slow down and you'll bang into the steering wheel.) It is a gamble - short and sweet.

So look now at what has happened this year. US$ are almost zero interest rated. Aus dollars are almost 8%. Five years ago one £1 sterling bought you 3 AU$ now it buys half that! HALF!!!  So in effect if you had sold all your pounds or dollars and done nothing else for 5 years you would have made 100% profit plus compoiund interest at 8% per year. Now that is fantastic (its about 28% per annum).

Add in the funds from central banks and whoopee its fun time for franky on the FX floor. Can't loose this one way bet.
Trouble is you can.

Countries like China have pegged their currency to the greenback. So even though it should be rising and rising it isn't. They also buy lots of dollars. So they become America (and the Wests) bankers. What happens if they let the currency go? Wham. Chinese Yuan are worth 100% more. Dollars are worthless America is now the sweatshop of the globe and all your investments are useless.

This is a neat economic and bloodless way to achieve a coup d'etat.