The three types of necessary investment

It is well known that OECD countries need to make a huge investment effort: to reindustrialise, for the energy transition, for infrastructure, etc. It is important to then distinguish between three types of such investment: Investments with acceptable returns for the private sector (industry, renewable energy production, etc.), which will therefore be carried out by companies; Investments with intermediate, modest returns (production of equipment for renewable energies, infrastructure construction, decarbonisation of industry), which can be financed by a mix of public and private sector debt; Investments with very low returns (thermal renovation of buildings and housing), which even the public sector cannot finance with debt, even in a low-interest-rate environment, and which must be financed through taxation .