alt Hacker News>Similarly, thanks to recent efforts by the Trump administration, the $15 trillion held in private sector workers’ retirement accounts is now, for the first time in history, available to be invested in private funds.
The argument is that retirement savings are being invested in different ways than before.
Replies
there is an argument to be made that investors with long investment horizons and predictable flows aka insurance companies and retirement funds are exactly the ones who should be taking risky long term bets instead of looking to next quarter
The language the author uses there obfuscates rather than clarifies. 401(k) holders can choose to invest in private credit, but it is never going to be the default investment option, and they control that choice. (Unlike public employees, who typically have no control over how their pension savings are invested.)
Specifically I believe the concern is pension funds.
Your 401K is invested however you choose, but the people with pension plans don't get any input on how those are invested or what risks they take. They have historically been cesspools of fraud and shady deals.
I'd like to see some quantification for their statement. It's unclear to me how much has actually been invested in private funds. I think that pensions invest, (and that the economy is linked together) is a far more persuasive (note that neoclouds and the hyperscalers are all public as are some of the private credit firms and banks bankrolling the build out).