Well, I thought I had seen it all:

Lifestyle drugs — chiefly Viagra — are costing General Motors $17 million dollars a year and the cost is passed along to car, truck and SUV consumers. The blue pill is covered under GM’s labor agreement with United Auto Workers, as well as benefit plans for salaried employees. GM executives estimate health care adds $1,500 to the price of each vehicle but they do not break out how much of the premium is caused by erectile dysfunction expenses. GM provides health care for 1.1 million employees, retirees and dependents and is the world’s largest private purchaser of Viagra. GM recently raised the co-pay for erectile dysfunction drugs to $18 under a new agreement with the UAW and the company has also pared benefits for salaried workers. Given the large number of aging autoworkers in the U.S., the industrys Viagra tab and bill for other erectile dysfunction drugs is certain to continue rising. Neither Ford nor Chrysler will disclose the amount spent on erectile dysfunction drugs.

Is this a technical sell signal?

This critical insight gives investors as much investing insight as anything that has appeared on CNBC in the last 2 months.

Senator Stabenow from Michigan just announced that she would put up American made cars against any other car made anywhere on the planet. I am sorry, but this woman is lost. I am not a prediction guy, but her delusions might signal the time to watch as this economy goes lower.

My film is done. We are left with some mastering aspects, but I do have the opportunity to add few seconds here and there of “stock” footage like in this commercial from Lending Tree. If anyone knows of a Wall Street related commercial on YouTube, something where brokers and or mutual funds tried to make themselves look good or made outrageous promises (circa 04-07), please post link here as a comment. I won’t promise much, but if it is a good clip that gets used I will definitely give film credit to you for “consulting”.

Interesting bit of research on happy v. unhappy.

Film cast.

From the papers today:

A rescue package for U.S. automakers could avert another stock market plunge like the one seen after Lehman Brothers’ collapse in September. “The reason people think failure could be cataclysmic is that there are so many companies that are tied to the auto industry,” said Marc Pado, U.S. market strategist at Cantor Fitzgerald & Co in San Francisco.

To keep the stock market from crashing we have to keep in business a business that can’t survive without the government propping it up? If this is true, all I can say is that we should be taking the pain now, cause the market will punish offenders sooner or later.

While not even getting into their strategies, which I am unfamiliar with, it is odd that the State of Florida is singled out for losing 25% of their State pension fund. I imagine almost EVERY pension fund with typical strategies is down big time.

I interviewed Paul Mulvaney, a UK-based trend trader, a few years back. He contributed material to my first book. His 2008 performance? Damn that’s some serious performance (PDF) in the face of everyone else seemingly losing their shirt.

Official web site for “Broke: The New American Dream” is live.

This feedback came in today:

“Intriguing. Right message; wrong person to present it. People will ask (rightfully so): Who the hell is Michael Covel?“

I like that. It kind of rhymes…

No one asked me to make this film, but I was concerned, for many valid reasons, that the story would not get told in the most hopeful way, so I decided to tell it. That’s the great thing about this world, if someone is not doing it, you can do it (or at least try!).

Some comments of mine that appeared in today’s NY Post.