Trump's Department of Labor is about to give plan administrators legal cover to move retirement savings into private markets.

This is the demand side of the private credit stress story.

Apollo and Ares are currently limiting redemptions. The Cliffwater private credit fund had 14% redemption requests in Q1. The exit doors are narrowing precisely as Washington opens the next source of captive capital: your pension.

I covered the supply side of this in February: pension funds as the largest hidden LP base in private credit, and what happens when they become forced sellers. The Department of Labor just handed the industry the legal mechanism to make that pool even larger.

The timing is not reassuring.