Goldman COO Waldron sees economic risks rising from geopolitics

Investors are at rising risk from political problems worldwide, including the U.S.-China trade dispute, conflicts with Iran and an impeachment inquiry of President Donald Trump, said Goldman Sachs Group Inc. President and Chief Operating Officer John Waldron.

“The risk premium on politics and geopolitics is elevating,” Waldron said in a Bloomberg Television interview. “For a long time, post financial crisis, we actually had a pretty modest amount of risk premium in the marketplace around the broad category of geopolitics, and that’s starting to change.”

Tensions escalated between Washington and Tehran following an attack this month on Saudi Arabian oil facilities, which the U.S. has blamed on Iran. The trade dispute between America and China, which has roiled global markets, worsened in May when negotiations broke down, with a new round of talks planned for October. And Speaker Nancy Pelosi said the U.S. House is opening a formal impeachment inquiry of Trump, saying he’s violated his oath of office and obligations under the Constitution.

Aside from a possible impeachment, next year’s U.S. presidential election “is an element of the broader risk premium that’s going to start to be injected into the marketplace,” Waldron said. “Risk in election, risk in what happens in Brexit, risk in what happens in U.S.-China trade, geopolitical risk around the Middle East, in Iran” will all affect allocation of capital, he said.