The plutonomy investment strategy

The current Barron's features an article titled "Rich America, Poor America." It argues that we now live in an age of "plutonomy." Plutonomy is defined as "a global economy disproportionately propelled by the rich." This is the new economic, social and political reality that must be recognized in any investment strategy.

Many discussions about growing inequality in income and wealth in the US and in the world (and I think this inequality is real and undeniable, despite the Wall Street Journal's ongoing effort to argue otherwise) focus on the political and social aspects of this trend. This makes sense, since it is very much a political and social issue. But Barron's asks an interesting economic question -- what should you do as an investor, given this trend?

The simple answer is to invest in the company's that profit from serving the ultra-rich. Citigroup Inc. (NYSE: C) has put together a basket of stocks that tap into the luxury goods market. These include Coach (NYSE: COH), Polo Ralph Lauren (NYSE: RL), Tiffany (NYSE: TIF), LVMH (MC.France) and Porsche (POR3.Germany). These stocks have outperformed the market over the last few years. Ajay Kapur, a Citigroup analyst who focuses on these companies, thinks they will continue to outperform, since the growth of economic inequality is not likely to change anytime soon.

Of course, it may strike some people as strange if not immoral to worry about investing in the midst of such a troubling social development. The Barron's article provides some solid data on why we should be concerned about this. In particular, it provides recent data on the Gini Coefficient, a standard measure of inequality used by sociologists and economists who study the topic. The data clearly shows that the US is becoming more unequal. Equally disturbing is that fact that as far as economic inequality is concerned, the US is becoming less like other wealthy, democratic, industrial nations (Germany, Spain, Denmark, France, Sweden) and more like less developed, less democratic countries (Mexico, Hong Kong, Brazil, China). So you should make adjustments to your investment strategy, but if you find this growing gap between the rich and everyone else disturbing, you may want to consider working for political change too.