We pay some attention to commodity prices for milk, sugar and cocoa. I plod through articles like the following from today’s Wall Street Journal. The article was written by Alexandra Wexler.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203750404577173241864893920.html?mod=WSJ_Markets_RIGHT_Top

But at the end of the article, which seems altogether confusing about what might happen to cocoa prices, there is an interesting observation.

“Some experts believe hard economic times will reduce demand for luxuries such as chocolate, but others say the debt crisis in Europe, the world’s largest consumer of chocolate in per-capita terms, could also send futures higher. Consumers are likely to buy more sweets as they seek comfort during trying times, they argue.

“The rougher the economy, the greater the stress,” said Rohit Deshpande, a marketing professor at Harvard Business School. “And the greater the stress, the greater the need for the socially acceptable stress-relieving chemical [dopamine] in chocolate.”