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At the Forbes Iconoclast Summit on June 3, 2026, Carlyle CEO Harvey Schwartz warned that we are living through one of the most consequential financial inflection points in decades, telling Forbes Chairman Steve Forbes that investors must rethink old playbooks in a changing world. His remarks landed in a room full of the world’s top dealmakers, a sign that this isn’t idle market chatter but a serious reassessment at the highest levels of finance. Washington would do well to listen instead of reflexively doubling down on policies that helped create the fragility now being exposed.
Schwartz was blunt that globalization as we knew it is slowing and that the architecture of trade and capital is being rewired — a reality experts from the World Economic Forum to major corporate strategists are now acknowledging. This so-called “reglobalization” shifts the premium from cheapest sourcing to secure, resilient supply chains, and that shift is both a risk and an opportunity for American workers if our leaders finally get serious about industrial policy that actually works. For patriots who believe in American industry, this should be a clarion call to rebuild manufacturing, not to subsidize failing models that ship jobs overseas.
At the same time, Schwartz and other speakers at the summit warned that technological innovation — most prominently AI — continues to accelerate, creating new winners and losers in the economy. The so-called AI arms race will remake productivity and corporate power, and it will favor countries that unleash private-sector ingenuity instead of smothering it with bureaucratic red tape and woke compliance theater. If conservatives want to win economically, we must champion policies that keep America the best place to invent, scale, and deploy cutting-edge technology.
This inflection matters because the decisions being made now will direct trillions of dollars of capital — the Iconoclast Summit itself convened leaders overseeing more than $20 trillion in assets under management who are already adjusting their playbooks. Investors aren’t stupid; they chase stability and return, and when the rules of the global game change they reallocate accordingly — which is why policymakers should stop pretending endless stimulus and reckless debt are benign. Instead of inflating away problems or trying to centrally plan growth, conservative leaders should restore fiscal sanity and pro-growth reforms so capital comes here, not to countries that undercut us.
Harvey Schwartz has also spoken about the relationship between inflation, monetary policy, and a resilient economy, sometimes defending cautious central bankers while warning against policy mistakes that could choke the recovery. Those comments mirror a larger reality: America’s economy is not a passive victim of global trends, it is shaped by our own monetary and fiscal choices — choices that have real consequences for savers, workers, and entrepreneurs. Conservatives must press for responsible monetary policy, lower taxes, and regulations that reduce costs for small businesses instead of grandstanding for status.
If this is indeed a once-in-a-generation economic rewiring, then the left’s instinct to double down on top-down planning and punitive regulation will only make America poorer and more dependent. Real national strength comes from energy independence, honest trade policy that defends American jobs, and unleashing entrepreneurs through deregulation and tax relief. Hardworking Americans deserve leaders who will turn this inflection point into a rebirth of American industry and prosperity — not another excuse to expand government and squander the opportunity.
