Even as BlackRock’s earnings surged in 2020, with the world’s largest asset manager benefiting from increased saving and investment, the coming retirement crisis in the U.S. is getting worse, BlackRock CEO Larry Fink said.

Read also Swiss APK designs new climate strategy for investments 

The three reasons are low interest rates, low savings rates, and more part-timers and self-employed people in the economy. Partly because of the low U.S. household savings rate, Fink said he believed the U.S. has required more fiscal stimulus than Europe.

Read also Infrastructure investing is no pension fund free ride (In response to “pension funds need a radical rethink”)

In the first quarter of 2020, the savings rate in Europe was about 15.6%, versus 8.3% in the U.S. in March.

“I am petrified about the silent crisis of retirement,” Fink said in an interview with Barron’s. “The great problem is a high percentage [of people in U.S.] in part-time work or self employed with no retirement funding.” While those working for larger companies do have retirement savings, many companies aren’t adequately teaching financial literacy.

“The reason the U.S. has needed more fiscal stimulus than the European economies is Americans don’t have adequate savings,” Fink continued. “When you have a crisis like the pandemic, Europe is better prepared because of broader, deeper savings” and a stronger safety net. “The U.S. is less prepared than Europe in terms of the financial resiliency of families because we’re not a society of savers.”

Separately, Fink’s outlook on the stock market remains positive because of the persistence of low interest rates, and because he believes the coronavirus vaccines will be “fully disseminated” in the late second quarter, producing herd immunity in the third quarter. That will revive parts of the economy that have flatlined and lay the groundwork for better growth later in the year.

Read more @Barron´s