Don't Fight Your Addiction; Bet on It

And when we can't get what we want, the forces of capitalism instantly conspire to create our methadones until we find the next addiction. When our addiction to oil in the Middle East becomes too great, we'll turn to the tar sands of Canada, or we'll more heavily invest in ethanol or coal-related fuels.

A great example of all this was in the Great Vanilla Wars of Madagascar in 2002. The country, which was the largest producer of vanilla, was engulfed in civil war, causing the price of vanilla to skyrocket from $25 per kilogram to $400 per kilogram. Nothing could stand in the way of the world's desire for vanilla (a known aphrodisiac), and scientists went into overdrive creating synthetic vanillin (a byproduct of petroleum production, ironically) and utilizing hydroponics to create vanilla in environments other than off the coast of Africa. Synthetic or "homegrown" vanilla quickly occupied 99% of the vanilla market, causing prices to drop to about $125 per kilogram.

Phew! I'm going to take a sip of my vanilla milkshake before I finish writing this.

Chocolate, however, might be the one addiction we will never be able to escape.

To read the rest of the story, and to find out how to turn a chocolate addiction into a moneymaker, please click here.

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A note from James Altucher:

Every weekend I send an email to Jim Cramer and several hedge fund managers about the most interesting portfolios posted on Stockpickr that week. Usually those portfolios not only list stocks according to a theme but also offer significant analysis as to why the stocks are cheap.

Here are some examples:

• Stocks related to drilling the Marcellus Shale
• MLPS with yields above 7%
• Microcaps trading for less than tangible book
• Stocks that do well after Hurricanes

Here's the challenge: Build a portfolio at Stockpickr.com with great analysis, and send me the link. Each great portfolio (with analysis) will get posted on TheStreet.com with your byline (as a "Stockpickr Guest Columnist") and will be included in my email I send to Jim and the other hedge fund managers on my list.