Stock market volatility is the new norm, Goldman Sachs says, and it's not as simple as markets being upset by geopolitical turmoil like the Iran war . The conflict in the Middle East has fueled the recent spike in equity volatility, Goldman says, but the firm's macro strategy research team sees an ongoing structural rise in long-term volatility beyond the war's end. "We have argued that there are good reasons to expect that equity volatility could move structurally higher over time, even with a