The New Normal

I went to a Men’s retreat over the past weekend.  The New Normal was the topic to be discussed.  Many aspects were covered that affect our lives.  A few that intrigue me are:

1) more money is spent on communications than food…

2) Malls are dead, online is taking over…

3) Politics is becoming more polarized, most information is like preaching to the choir …

4) And what I see in terms of the stock market, if feels like you only need to follow three stocks:

a) Goldman Sachs (GS) is a stock that is a good proxy for taking over the world….

b) Starbucks (SBUX) is a stock that ties into the iphone communications story…

c) Apple (AAPL) is a stock that is at the root of the New Normal psyche….

With the New Normal seemingly out of touch with the underlying economic base we watch an index made up of these three stocks to provide a window into a defensive posture.