Trump's Chaos is Hitting Ordinary Americans Where it Hurts – In Their 401(k)s
Working people saving for their retirement are in the grip of uncertainty and watching their pensions dwindle dramatically reports Matt Bernardini.
America took most of us on a roller coaster ride in the last week, as the entire stock market looked like a meme stock bouncing up and down. Trump’s tariff plan was implemented, caused a massive market drop, was then repealed (except for China), causing a market rebound, followed by another drop. And while much of this affects mainly the richest Americans, the economic uncertainty that has exploded under Trump is causing stress for many working Americans.
This is because our retirement system, different from many European countries, is privatized and heavily reliant on market forces. This is thanks to a change in the tax code made in the late 1970s that largely got rid of defined benefit pensions that provided many Americans with a stable post-work life.
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