US. How The Pandemic Is Making The Retirement Crisis Worse — And What To Do About It
The coronavirus crisis has torn the Band-Aid off the financial fragility of many Americans. With an unemployment rate between 15% and 20%, bank accounts draining, and the Dow down 23% in the first quarter, things are dreadful for millions of people.
But Americans in their 50s and 60s nearing retirement may be among the most endangered. Many already weren’t on track for retirement, with little or no savings. Now, the COVID-19 downturn threatens to further undermine America’s vulnerable public and private retirement systems.
Long story short: the pandemic is making the retirement crisis worse. Without strong public policy initiatives, experts say, the already too numerous ranks of the financially insecure will swell even further.
But, they add, a few smart and urgent reforms could bolster Americans’ financial security later in life.
“The building blocks are there. They are available. The rules we use, and the access to them, are messed up,” says Kurt Winkelmann, senior fellow at the Heller-Hurwitz Institute at the University of Minnesota and co-founder of the investment research firm Navega Strategies.
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