How Threats to the Rule of Law, Geopolitics, and AI Could Impact Investors
In this series of videos, we examine three key topics raised by investors following the launch of the Investment Strategy Group’s (ISG) 2026 Outlook US Resilience Resilient. These are: rule of law and the system of checks and balances, the geopolitical landscape beyond Iran, and the expectations for AI. Several leading figures in their respective fields join Sharmin Mossavar-Rahmani, chief investment officer of Wealth Management and head of ISG, to address these topics.
The greatest threat to US Preeminence is an erosion of the country’s rule of law and system of checks and balances. To help investors understand if the system is holding up, Sharmin Mossavar-Rahmani interviews Adam White, who has regularly contributed to leading publications and testified before Congress on regulation, administrative law, constitutional law, and the modern administrative state.
- The state of the rule of law and checks and balances (0:45)
- Unitary executive theory (3:14)
- Constitutional foundations (4:05)
- Supreme Court decisions and presidential power (5:10)
Beyond the realm of domestic politics in the US, investors continue to face a long list of geopolitical risks that can send jitters through financial markets. In this video, Sir Alex Younger, the former head of Britain’s Secret Intelligence Service, MI6, and Sharmin Mossavar-Rahmani share their views on the broader geopolitical landscape to help investors separate signal from noise in the dynamic environment.
- Tensions between US, China, and Russia (1:06)
- US policy on Greenland, Venezuela, and Gaza (2:07)
- Russia-Ukraine War (4:40)
- The evolving role of international institutions (6:22)
For investors navigating the rapidly evolving AI landscape, understanding the technology's potential and limitations is crucial. “The consumer adoption of AI has been quite robust. There is upwards of a billion daily active users on the various models leveraging AI…That said, it is undeniable that up until now the enterprise adoption of this technology has been very disappointing,” says Jim Covello, Head of Global Equity Research within Global Investment Research. Sharmin Mossavar-Rahmani was joined by Covello to discuss AI’s economic and commercial viability, transformational impact, and how the AI revolution may impact investors’ portfolios.
- Consumer vs enterprise adoption of AI (1:03)
- The economics behind AI infrastructure investment (2:00)
- The challenges applying AI across enterprise data (3:17)
- The risks of bubbles in AI valuations and earnings (5:19)
- Technology competition between China and the US (8:06)
- Opportunities for task specific models (9:08)
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