Remember when shares of Sirius and XM radio were the talk of Wall Street only a few years ago? The next generation of radio that will take over every car, home and local business? Fast forward to today, and only a couple of months after the July merger and shares of the combined company Sirius XM (SIRI) are trading at less than a dollar!

The merger was supposed to inject confidence in investors, but the stock has dropped by more than 40% since July (click chart to enlarge). Last week, the company announced that subscriber growth will be slower than analysts expect. CEO Mel Karmazin, who was instrumental in signing top media names for Sirius radio’s lineup, such as Howard Stern and Martha Stewart, also had a hand in fueling the downward pull on share price after he made an “off-handed” comment regarding the large amount of debt due in February which the company is trying to negotiate. “Am I going to lend the company the money? I hope not. I hope we don’t get to that”. He later explained he was being candid, akin to a joke.

It is no secret that in a worsening economic environment, society tends to think twice about spending on luxuries. What exactly is considered a luxury can be problematic to define. Can food be a luxury? To some, certain foods, such as fruits and vegetables can be.

According to a recent research poll published Monday in the U.K., 15% of Brits are cutting back spending on fruits and vegetables, 7% said they are spending more on alcohol, and another 6% are buying more cigarettes, since the start of the British credit crunch about one year ago.

Our last stock pick, Washington Mutual (WM), back on July 14 for our Stock Picks Portfolio, gave us a great head start with a 3-day return of 65.94%.

So here we are again finding a great bargain. First Marblehead (FMD) provides outsourcing of private student loans. This stock was a success trading at over $40 a share before the credit crisis and the subsequent collapse of financial stocks. It bottomed at a little over $1 in July of 2008, and after announcing an equity investment by Goldman Sachs (GS) Capital Partners and the return of company co-founder Dan Meyers, the stock skyrocketed to $5, before settling down, and now trades around $4.