Retirement Crisis a 'Looming Catastrophe'

This article from US News & World Report:

Ronald P. O'Hanley is president of asset management and corporate services for Fidelity Investments, the huge Boston-based provider of employer retirement plan services to roughly 20 million people. Last week, he gave a speech in Washington at the "Capital Markets Summit" sponsored by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. I know, another droning, predictable paean to the virtues of free enterprise and the marvelous retirement industry in which Fidelity plays such a major role. 

Only it wasn't. It was, instead, an aggressive and unequivocal wake-up call. Think Churchill talking about manning the retirement barricades. Unless a lot of people begin changing their ways, and changing them soon, O'Hanley said, the nation will not be able to avert a "looming catastrophe" in the retirements of millions of baby boomers who are now headed for destitute financial futures and old ages spent in poverty.

Such an outcome, he stressed, would have a disastrous affect on everyone in the United States, not just the elderly. "If tens of millions of Americans reach retirement with insufficient savings," O'Hanley said, "the impact on our citizens, our economy and our national security could be catastrophic—and not something we could solve for most retirees after the fact."

LINK to full article.