It is difficult to understand how more Americans will achieve retirement security without innovation in the pension system. Innovation involves trying out new ideas and approaches, learning by trial and error. The federal government has a role to play in a learning pension system. First, it can be a catalyst for innovation. Second, it can create the regulatory space in which new approaches can be tried.

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The P4 laboratory, on the campus of the Wuhan Institute of Virology, in Wuhan, in China's central Hubei province. (Hector Retamal/AFP via Getty Images)