In reality, the euro zone has picked the low-hanging fruit; the hardest tasks remain

Since the 2010-2013 crisis, the euro zone has successfully conducted “defensive” policies, which we characterise as low-hanging fruit because in reality they have required little effort: Highly expansionary monetary policies since 2014-2015 to ensure public debt sustainability and prevent debt crises; Highly expansionary fiscal policies in 2020-2021, with monetisation of fiscal deficits, to prevent a fall in real household income and corporate bankruptcies; Rapid increase in public spending of all types to stimulate activity. But the hardest tasks, which will be much more difficult than simply extensively using expansionary monetary and fiscal policies (which are not a sustainable long-term economic policy instrument for the euro zone), remain: Raising skills and, as a result, the employment rate; Reducing the lag in corporate modernisation and innovation to increase productivity gains and reduce technological dependency; Support ing the energy transition to prevent job losses, increased inequality and technological dependency; Correcti ng the financial instability caused by the highly expansionary monetary policy.