Mohamed A. El-Erian , Columnist

The Titanic Risks of the Retirement System

If we're not careful, our savings could go the way of the supposedly unsinkable ship.

August 12, 2016 at 6:00 AM UTC

Mohamed A. El-Erian is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist. A former chief executive officer of Pimco, he is president of Queens’ College, Cambridge; chief economic adviser at Allianz SE; and chair of Gramercy Fund Management. He is author of “The Only Game in Town.”

Not unsinkable.
Illustration: Hulton Archive/Getty Images

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Imagine an entire enterprise set on course for disaster, driven by the owner’s arrogant pursuit of profit. The members of the management team, from the CEO on down, know better but fail to resist or are ignored. The clients remain totally unaware of the risks until far too late, with catastrophic results -- particularly for the poorest among them.

This is the story line of the excellent "Titanic," a musical now playing at the Charing Cross Theatre in London. As I took in this powerful portrayal of the human failures that brought down a ship thought to be unsinkable, it occurred to me that if we're not careful, the tragic story could also end up describing the fate of the global retirement system.