Charles Schwab: Obama economic inaction harms elderly

• Seniors have paid the highest price for our country's financial mess.
• Obama administration's lack of leadership on a growth policy is to blame.
• There is only one path to where the rate for retirement savings returns to 3.5%.

Seniors Alert: Your savings income will remain near zero until the economy sees growth

Seniors have paid the highest price for our country's financial mess with the loss of their supplemental retirement income. Their savings -- from money funds, savings accounts and checking accounts -- has been devastated. People near or in retirement have saved for 30 to 40 years and now the rug has been pulled out from under them.

The Obama administration's lack of a growth policy isn't just hurting the millions of Americans who are out of work. It's clobbering retirees. If you're in retirement -- and there are 40 million Americans who are -- you should be fuming that all your hard work and careful planning have come to this.

I am 75 years old, so I see this situation with a personal empathy. Seniors spend their lives planning for the time when they will be living independently. They play by the rule book and save for decades. At a time when there is no opportunity for a redo, the rules are changed. Government officials say it won't be until mid-2015 before there will be any adjustment in economic growth. According to some financial commentators, it will take longer than that.

How did this happen? Who stole Americans' retirement income?

One arm of the government, the Fed, has decided to lower interest rates to near zero. They say it will help improve employment, and absent leadership from the Obama administration, they believe they're the only game left in town. Growth has not happened yet; unemployment has remained above 8% for most of the past four years.

Two other arms of the government -- the White House and Congress -- have yet to compromise on an economic policy to get a solution. To add insult to injury, interest rates on savings in the U.S. are lower than nearly anywhere else in the world. Most countries pay substantially higher rates.

Unfortunately, because the Fed has set these low rates, since 2009 savers have had to draw on their principal to supplement their retirement income. They also have been harmed further because of modest inflation. The purchasing value of their savings principal has dropped by at least 8%.

How much interest have Americans lost? If instead of earning a 0% interest rate for these four years, the rate had been closer to the more historically normal 3.5%, that would have put more than $250 billion of interest into savers' pockets each year.

Every senior in the country should be piping mad. We're all for sacrifice -- but piling it so heavily on the shoulders of people in retirement is simply wrong.

How do we get out of this condition?

There is only one path to where the rate for retirement savings returns to 3.5%. It is called economic growth. We need to get back to normal growth of 2.5% to 3.5% per year. We need strong leadership in the White House and leadership that will work with Congress to solve the fiscal mess.

Americans need to go back to work. Investors need to take more risk. Our entrepreneurs need new incentives. We need a new level of confidence in our economy. Seniors have a serious decision to make this November.

Unless we get our economy back to normal growth with more people employed, it will remain easy to count our savings income. It will be zero. Seniors need to support the presidential candidate who can best assure us of a fast return to normal economic growth.

Charles Schwab is founder and chairman of Charles Schwab Corporation, a brokerage and banking company. He has officially endorsed Mitt Romney for president.

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