What is the New Normal?

"The New Normal," a term that Bill (William H.) Gross coined in March, 2009, to define the economic landscape for years, or decades, to come. "When the U.S. and global economy reset after the crisis, [the global economy] will look different," says (Mohamed) El-Erian of PIMCO. "This has implications for investment strategies, how you run a business and what you offer your clients." According to PIMCO, those implications are rather grim for the U.S. In 2009 Gross told FORBES that our future will likely include a lowered living standard, high unemployment, stagnant corporate profits, heavy government intervention in the economy and disappointing equity returns. http://www.forbes.com/forbes/2010/0208/investing-mutual-funds-stocks-pimco-new-normal.html

Our pursuit of patterns can lead us to define the recent past as the “new normal,” a definition that can vary greatly based on personal circumstance. When we get focused on the new normal, we forget to think about the possibility of surprises. After all, our brains naturally want to cut through the complexity and settle into a routine. But the reality is that surprises will happen no matter how we define normal because life has no set or guaranteed pattern. Surprises interrupt our definition of the new normal and cause us to reset our expectations. http://bucks.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/12/20/theres-no-such-thing-as-the-new-normal/

PIMCO Update January 2012--from New Normal towards Paranormal:
http://www.pimco.com/EN/Insights/Pages/Towards-the-Paranormal-Jan-2012.aspx