After the COVID crisis, the real threat is not that households will fail to spend their savings, but that companies will hoard them

Public aid has been massive in all OECD countries, exceeding the total loss of income in 2020. So the problem is not the loss of income, but the use of the income. There is often concern that households will keep their forced savings without spending them, thanks to long-lasting precautionary savings; but it should not be forgotten that household savings can be invested by the government or by companies. So it is not a major problem if savings are not consumed as long as investment picks up again; Companies have received state aid, benefited from tax cuts and increased their debt: they are not short of funds either. What will determine future potential growth is how companies use these funds: will they hoard them by keeping cash reserves or will they invest them? Already after the subprime crisis, the decline in potential growth was due to the decline in capital accumulation by companies. Good economic policies are therefore those that support corporate investment.