Post-COVID economy: What could have been different that is not?

The COVID crisis created expectations of a number of changes in economies; but some of these changes did not occur, which is as interesting to analyse as the changes that did occur. Among the expected changes that have not materialised, we can look in particular at: The fact that income distribution continues to be skewed in favour of companies (earnings) and that, contrary to expectations, employees' bargaining power has not increased ; The absence of reindustrialisation and deglobalisation, on the contrary, the sharp increase in OECD countries’ imports from emerging countries; The rapid return of unemployment and, in the euro zone but not in the United States, employment, to the pre-crisis level when it was feared that unemployment would rise permanently; While there was talk of a wave of bankruptcies and a corporate “debt wall,” there has actually been an improvement in companies’ financial situation (high earnings, falling bankruptcies, lower debt net of cash reserves than in 2019).