Barron's Recap (7/21/12): The Veggie Juice Craze

This weekend in

online: the booming vegetable and fruit juice market, as well as a return to the gold standard, the prospects for Calpine, Canon and John Bean Technologies, and more.

"

" by Robin Goldwyn Blumenthal. The consumption of super-premium vegetable juices in place of a meal or simply as refreshment has become a $5 billion business, one forecast to grow by as much as 8 percent a year. Whether bought off the shelf or hand-blended in hip juice bars, these kale cocktails, super-fruit smoothies and other nutrient-packed libations are part of a national trend toward healthier eating and consumption of raw and organic produce. Campbell Soup

, maker of V8 vegetable juice, recently announced it will acquire Bolthouse Farms to expand its presence in this niche. Coca-Cola's

Odwalla brand of super-premium juices and PepsiCo's

Naked juices can be found on those shelves. Starbucks

also has entered the fray; it bought Evolution Fresh, a line of cold-pressed vegetable and fruit juices, in November. Four months later it opened its first Evolution Fresh store. Also see the results of

unscientific taste test of a number of fresh vegetable juices.

"Coming: The End of Fiat Money" by Leslie P. Norton is an interview with Stephanie Pomboy, founder of MacroMavens, who foresees a day when money will again be backed by gold or other hard assets. Jack Willoughby's "Calpine Gets Ready to Light It Up" focuses on Calpine

, a power company that was in bankruptcy court not long ago but now may be set to expand. In "Boarding Pass for Gains," David Englander examines small cap John Bean Technologies

, which focuses on the foodservice and airport-equipment markets, as well as generates high returns on capital. Neil A. Martin's "Time for a Change at Canon?" asks whether the chairman and CEO of Canon

can continue to be as effective a leader as he was in the past, or whether it is time for a change. "Well-Timed Entrance" by Michael Aneiro is a profile of portfolio manager Dan Ivascyn, who led the Pimco Income fund to big gains by buying mortgage-backed securities after the financial crisis started. Advice from Jeff Erdmann of Merrill Lynch is the focus of "Meet the Coach" by Alexander Eule. Erdmann explains why he is wary of bonds and bullish on blue-chip stocks. America's biggest economic problem today is health care, says H. Woody Brock in "A Supply-Side Solution for Health Care," and radically increasing health care supply is not really impossible. In "Depression-Era Angst," Richard C. Morais learns from a chief investment officer that wealthy families right now are in the grip of a kind of inertia when it comes to investing, a kind of Depression-era mentality. "Transports of Delight" is an editorial commentary by Thomas G. Donlan on the American infatuation with the dream of high-speed rail.

Columns in this weekend's

discuss: