There are retreats and retreats. Napoleon's in Russia, and the one that's putting the public accounts into a tailspin. In his annual letter to investors, Larry Fink, CEO of BlackRock, the world's leading asset manager, addressed both subjects. The first is the less than glorious disappearance of any mention of the term "ESG" from his report, spanning approximately 30 pages.

However, it was he who, between 2018 and 2022, helped popularize the concept of environmental, social and governance concerns in the management of companies and the ratings of major financiers such as BlackRock. The company with $10,000 billion (around €9,236 billion) in assets under management on behalf of its clients could have done without this retreat. But it has become such a politically divisive issue that Fink's company has been excluded from investment mandates by Republican states such as Texas.

Hence the change of vocabulary in his letter, which, over time, has become the thermometer of corporate and investor societal obsessions. The venerable 71-year-old Fink worries about pensions, before tackling the sensitive subject of the environment in a lengthy essay on the imperative of renewing energy infrastructures.

After all, the challenge of funding retirement is not unique to France; it's causing concern globally for those analyzing demographic trends alongside public finances. Worldwide, one in six people will be over 65 by 2050, compared to one in 11 today. Everywhere, the three pillars of financing life after work are in trouble. Not everyone has personal savings, companies are increasingly less supportive of funded systems and social security finances are vulnerable to the rising debts of governments. In France, a quarter of all public spending is absorbed by pensions alone.

In the US, where social security is less generous, funding is insufficient and incredibly unequal. According to Fink, in 2022, half of all Americans aged 55 to 65 had no money saved for retirement. This is because company contributions are no longer compulsory. We need to "make retirement investing more automatic for workers," he said. Otherwise, no matter what, retirement will always be a wreck – for individuals and communities alike, and even for BlackRock's beloved stock market.