During the pre-conference opening session at Schwab Impact 2010 in Boston on Tuesday evening, advisors in the audience responded warmly to skepticism that the markets and economy is marked by a "new normal" as espoused by PIMCO's Bill Gross and Mohammed El-Erian.
Responding to a question from CNBC's Maria Bartiromo at the opening session, Mellody Hobson, president of Ariel Investments, received loud murmurs of approval when she questioned whether there is such a thing as a "new normal."
While both Hobson and Liz Ann Sonders, chief market strategist for Charles Schwab Co., expressed nothing but respect and admiration for Gross and El-Erian, Hobson asked whether it was "normal" for people to apply for and get mortgages without showing the ability to pay those mortgages, and whether it was "normal" for the 300-million strong U.S. population to receive 3 billion solicitations for credit cards, or for Americans to carry an average of five credit cards and to have an average credit card debt of $12,000.
