Hey VC's . . . Are You Still Buying Violin Memory $VMEM Trading Below Cash Value?

Why is Violin Memory $VMEM Trading Below Cash Value?
Will These VC Funds & Corporate Investors let this company fail?  
Windcrest, Juniper Networks, Toshiba, SAP Ventures, GE Capital, Highland Capital

I have often said the Venture Capital is a game of getting bigger and dumber money to follow the smart money.  This one takes the cake.  Violin Memory has priced its IPO of 18,000,000 shares at $9 per share for a value of $162 million. J.P. Morgan, Deutsche Bank Securities, EM Securities and BofA Merrill Lynch are underwriting the IPO, with Barclays serving as a joint book-running manager. Baird and Pacific Crest Securities are also co-managers. Based in Mountain View, Calif., Violin Memory, which is backed by SAP Ventures, Highland Capital Partners, Toshiba and Juniper Networks, is a provider of memory-based storage solutions.

Revenue Growth Looks Good But Spending Money For Sales Expansion

If you can dismiss their last quarter below guidance based on not closing a few Government contracts and their CTO leaving the story looks pretty interesting bringing on 30+ new customers in the quarter.  This chart looks horrible but it feels like an interesting public venture capital growth opportunity if you don't mind trying to catch a falling knife of a pretty good growth opportunity. 
The $VMEM IPO Priced at $9 and now it trading at $2.6?  
Is this an overreaction?

Here are Silicon Valley’s 10 most in-demand startups
Big Data Storage Companies:  Cloudera, Nimble Storage, Dropbox, Violin Memory

Violin Memory $VMEM currently has market cap of $100M and $NMBL $1.5B which is a difference of 15x. Nimble and Violin have similar tech, customers, industry, revenue, losses. Go figure Wall Street due your due diligence before investing.

Why The Fed's 0% Interest Rate Policy Hurts The Economy & Savers



Hedge Fund Manager David Einhorn explains how $200 billion per year is not being spent in the economy by savers because of the 0% interest rate policies.  Janet Yellen said yes our policies hurt savers but helps the overall economy?  I frankly think the Feds theories are incredibly flawed.  Gains in the stock market and housing are not being spent and the whole wealth effect theory only benefits a few people and not the masses.    

Hedge Fund Manager David Einhorn


The Best Eastern Conference NHL Team Would Not Qualify For The Playoffs in the Western Conference

The Western Conference NHL has clearly been beating up on the Eastern Conference in the first 22 games of the season.  

What Is The Best Bitcoin Wallet or Exchange Service?

Where is the Best Places to Buy & Trade Bit Coins?
What Wallets and Exchanges Are Certified?
How Are Merchant and Bitcoin Owners Vetted?

Bitcoin is the World's first decentralized digital monetary system and "bitcoins" are the currency units used. A decentralized system is essentially a P2P or pier to pier system versus a centrally managed system like PayPal.  The system has existed since January 3rd, 2009 and is used in every Country in the World. Bitcoins are created and controlled by advanced mathematics and cryptography, instead of by governments or banks (no government, bank, or corporation owns or controls Bitcoin). Bitcoins as a currency unit are created over time at a diminishing rate, and there will never be more than 21 million of them in existence (though they are highly divisible).

Bitcoin is different from any other payment system because:
  • It is decentralized (no group has monopoly control over it) 
  • It is not tied to US dollars or other government fiat currencies 
  • It is impossible to suffer chargebacks or frozen accounts 
  • It is (relatively) anonymous 
  • Fees are optional (you may pay to make your transactions process slightly faster)
  • Merchants can accept payments easily with hardly any fees.
Other virtual currencies do exists and are used for other services such as video games.  It will be interesting to see how this phenomenon evolves and if it will ever become commercially viable in the United States due to the enormous protection of the existing US banking laws.  China is one of the leading countries in World using and exchanging bitcoins.  The US is lagging far behind other countries in the World with adoption.  

US Governments officials and regulators will obviously be interested in stopping / regulating this for the following reasons:  
  • Cutting Off Terrorism Funding
  • Leakage of Tax Revenue 
  • Money Laundering 
  • Tax Evasion 
  • Exchange of Illegal Goods and Services
Would love to learn more about these services and would appreciate the feedback below.  Please add links and comments.  

Federal Reserve Whistleblower Says "Insiders Know Quantitative Easing Doesn't Work"

Andrew Huszar: WSJ Oped:  Confessions of a Quantitative Easer We went on a bond-buying spree that was supposed to help Main Street. Instead, it was a feast for Wall Street.  Posted at the WSJ. Mr. Huszar, a senior fellow at Rutgers Business School, is a former Morgan Stanley managing director. In 2009-10, he managed the Federal Reserve's $1.25 trillion agency mortgage-backed security purchase program.

Has the Fed Lost Control of Interest Rates & the Bond Market?

Is the 10 Year about To Breakout of This Long Term Monthly Range into the 5-6% Range?

Is the 30 Year about to Breakout of this Long Term Monthly Range to 8%?

TLT is the 30 Year Bond vs S&P 500

Google Domains & Google Apps for Business Billing is Confusing

Google Domains & Google Apps for Business Billing is Confusing

I have been using Google domains for over 2 years and gladly pay $10 per year for this domain registration service.  However, now I mysteriously got a bill from Google Apps for Business charging me $10 for a service I don't use.

I never opted into this service and had to sign up for it when I registered the domain.  Their subscription billing is completely confusing and does not tell me I am required to subscribe to Google Apps for Business to use their domain services.

Hopefully, someone from Google will find this blog post and clear up the issues I cannot find in any of their forums or technical support.  

Historical Chart Fed Interest Rates vs SPX 1971 to 2013

how much impact the Federal Reserve has on the overall economy
This chart alone should tell you how much impact the Federal Reserve has on the overall economy.  The Fed can obviously influence bankers but they have a little trickle-down effect on the overall economy.  Housing market bubbles yes but business growth and jobs no.   

40 years at risk to collapse
 Is the economy 27x stronger than it was in 1971?  Or is this a Ponzi scheme spending and debt policy that have simply propped up markets artificially. Is the value created over the last 40 years at risk to collapse? 
Historical US Unemployment Rate
Historical US Unemployment Rate
Duration of Unemployment
Duration of Unemployment 
The labor participation rate is collapsing.
The labor participation rate is collapsing.  


Is a Currency War about to Cause the Next U.S. Stock Market Crash?


Is the money printing debt ponzi scheme about to come to a crashing end?

New Phony Fed Stimulus Financial Paradigm = Deflation Not Inflation

Fed Stimulus = Long-Term Deflation Not Inflation 

The Fed has created another bubble that will likely pop but this time all the hedge funds are all long the market and not short.  Is the business environment REALLY getting any better with all the Fed Stimulus, QE1, QE2, or QE3?  Not really if you ask me and it has created a phony sense of reality with the over-inflated equity markets.  Historically, investors would value buying stocks based on that company making money.  Today, investors are making stock purchasing decisions based on liquidity, yield, and price action.  The Fed wants investors to chase equities and bonds higher so we feel wealthy and spend more.  But their intentions to create inflation could have the opposite effect on those who actually create the jobs and invest.