Stocks again darted higher as the FOMC began its long awaited two-day meeting. Ben Bernanke and company are discussing policy including the future of the Fed's $85 billion-a-month bond buying program to stimulate the economy. Bernanke will hold a press briefing tomorrow afternoon once the meeting concludes. Meanwhile, two economic reports were released this morning. First is the Consumer Price Index for May which rose 0.1% when expectations were for 0.2%. Separately, the Commerce Department said housing starts rose by 914,000, lower than the forecast for 955,000.

Shares of Sony (SNE) rose another 3% today as hedge fund manager Daniel Loeb put more pressure on the Japanese powerhouse of yesteryear. Loeb sent Sony a new letter calling for a spin-off its electronics company to isolate it from the more profitable entertainment unit. Loeb's firm "Third Point" has just upped its stake in Sony by five million shares to almost 7% of the company. Sony's board says it will review Loeb's proposal.

The New Normal is so last year; the New Abnormal is here.

At least that’s how it seems based on how often this phrase is being applied to trends and phenomena that appear jarring or strange but which – the coiners suggest – we'd better get used to.

The New Normal, of course, was a phrase propagated by bond-investing giant Pimco beginning in April 2009 to describe a long, painful economic convalescence period it foresaw, characterized by stubbornly slow economic growth and persistently high unemployment in an aging world carrying too much debt.

And so it happened: The U.S. recovery has steadily fallen short of hopes and official forecasts, surpassing a 3% pace in only three separate quarters since 2008. Treasury rates – near 3% and rising when Pimco christened the New Normal – have stayed so low, due to sluggish growth and massive central-bank bond buying, that the recent pop to 2.2% from 1.7% has unsettled investors.

A stale status quo

This New Normal rubric has done such a good job