The analysis by Tirole (2008) of maturity transformation by financial intermediaries such as pension funds and insurance companies which have (uncertain) long-term liabilities (and assets of a shorter maturity) carries this Keynesian tradition further. In the presence of macroeconomic shocks that affect everybody simultaneously, he argues, private sector assets are not useful. Instead what is needed is an external risk-free store of value such as government bonds. A prolonged period of low rates of interest on government bonds can make some pension products offered by such firms unviable
