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The government is getting serious again about helping to protect the populace, another sign of the shift in social mood.
--Tiane

As The Elliott Wave Financial Forecast first pointed out with a comprehensive study of  Coca-Cola's waxing and waning popularity in December, 1999 (see Additional References to our entry of July 15, 2005),
every advance has its bull market beverage. Through most of the last century, Coke was, in fact, it. Others were popular, too, but Coke always seemed to get the biggest  of the bull market beverage boost. Through the last great push, however, Coke's not “it” anymore. In a phenomenon that is very consistent with the extremity of the social mood high, the “it” drink are loaded with much levels of caffiene and go by names like “Extreme Energy Shot” and “Ultra Jolt.” As EWFF noted in August, 2006 (see Additional References below), the most recent twist, and object of government attack, is the addition of alcohol to energy drinks. As EWFF noted last eyar, this is the perfect cocktail for toasting the transition from long-term advance to decline.

One Bangor Daily News editorial (“Don’t Drink to That,” August 23, 2007) notes that beer-based energy drinks such as Sparks and Sparks Plus, Bud Extra and Liquid Charge are marketed through campaigns that suggest the drinks can increase stamina and give the drinker added energy.” They are marketed under slogans such as, “Say hello to an endless night of fun,” “A little extra will help to keep you going after a long day on the slopes" and “You can sleep when you’re 30.” In the last moments of the bull market, people did whatever it took to keep the party going. Who knows maybe energy drinks helped push things a little higher for longer than we thought possible, but now the party is ending. As people finally start to sober up, leave it to government to hit the scene and do what it always does at the end of an uptrend; make absolutely sure, nobody is having a good time.

Now, check out the latest twist, which literally cans the cross-currents of an expiring bull and a revitalized bear:
Energy Drinks Add Another Kick–Alcohol Energy
—The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, June 11, 2006

It picks you up and slows you down at the same time, the perfect cocktail for celebrating the all-time peak in the Value Line and the initiation of a third wave decline in the S&P. In a collective toast to the greatest top of all time, people everywhere are knocking back Tilt, Sparks and Liquid Charge. How long can it be before we hear: “Bartender, give me an energy drink, but hold the energy?” Not long, we bet.