Allison Schrager is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering economics. A senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, she is author of “Worth the Risk: The Seven Myths That Keep Us From Taking the Chances We Need to Take."
These retirement accounts were in many ways a triumph, mainly because they became popular right before one of the best stock runs in history. About 20% of Americans are now millionaires.
Even a growing economy has bear markets. And the question is how the changing nature of stock ownership will change the nature of bear markets.
The US now has a large, captive population of investors who not only own lots of stock no matter what happens, but they also buy more each month through their regular contributions to their retirement plans.
These investors are becoming a large share of the market. In the first quarter of 2026, some $32 trillion was invested in IRAs or defined-contribution plans.
This growth in retirement investors means more systemic risk, because if the stock market drops there is an economy-wide wealth shock that affects more than 60% of households.
If markets don’t recover, it leaves some poorer in retirement.
It also makes people feel poorer today because of the wealth effect. This could further depress demand and worsen a potential recession.
Allison Schrager Bloomberg 21 September 2026
https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2026-09-21/passive-retirement-investing-raises-systemic-risk-for-us-markets
A college degree is supposed to signal qualities employers value, such as intelligence, judgment and an ability to work with others. A degree from an elite university is supposed to signal these qualities in abundance.
It was never an accurate signal — lots of people who don’t go to college possess these qualities, and lots of people who do go don’t — but in a noisy labor market, employers need some sort of screening mechanism, and for a century or more, higher education provided it.
Over the past few decades, however, elite schools have undermined the value of their signal. At first, going to such a school just meant you were from an elite family; it said little about your ability. Then...
There is a way to restore trust, one of the most valuable courses of study is a curriculum developed a century ago, commonly known as Philosophy, Politics and Economics, or PPE.
The PPE program is a course of study that has been offered at Oxford since the 1920s.
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