« Previous | Main Page | Next »

First of all, thanks to Kevin Depew and Scott Reamer of Minyanville.com for pointing out the peak mood significance of energy drinks. Here’s Scott’s analysis: "Nothing better than a product one can purchase to allay the physical and emotional manifestations of the growing bear trend: listlessness, lethargy, etc. But in terms of risk-seeking, this type of energy drink is, in actuality, (as the 'health professionals' lament) quite risky and in the end will achieve the very thing it seeks to prevent.”

The energy drink phenomenon fits so well with the current juncture. We'll probably cover it in a future issue of The Elliott Wave Financial Forecast. The quickening attacks reminds us of what happened to another bull market beverage, Coca-Cola, right before the Dow’s all-time high in 2000. As we noted above, for some reason, fears about food and drink tend to appear near large-degree tops in social mood. Since energy drinks are one of the ways people appear to hold it together through the frenzied pace of an extreme in bullish psychology, it makes sense that they would become a focus of anxiety and “concern” in the reversal. For a glimpse of their future, energy drink makers should study Coca-Cola’s history of bear market troubles (see Additional References and Sociotimes entries July 15, 2005, December 30, 2005, May 4 ).

In an echo of two earlier peak moments when the social mood was at a similar juncture a June 22 USA Today review of a new book, Radical Innocent: Upton Sinclair, revisits the author "Who Created a Rumble with 1906 'Jungle' Exposing  Meatpacker Horrors." The article notes that Sinclair near the end of his life and the peak of 1968, Sinclair met with LBJ at the White House at the signing of the Wholesale Meat Act in December 1967. "I sort of felt that two historic consumer ages were meeting – Upton Sinclair and I were together in the White House," said Nadar of the occasion. USA Today suggests that they appear to be meeting again as Fast Food Nation (2001) and Super Size Me (2004) are "making people think about what they eat." The Jungle is "depressingly relavant" says an author. "The story we tell ourselves is those were the bad old days. There may been a time when it did get better, but now we're back."