What did we learn in 2020?

The experience of 2020 and the COVID crisis has taught us a lot and made us think a lot in many areas: We have understood that there may be a succession of crises (public health, climate, geopolitical, cybersecurity, social, etc.) and that policy must try to prevent these crises because the defensive measures taken in 2020-2021 (public debt, monetary expansion) cannot be repeated; We have changed our perception of what is possible with economic policies (fiscal, monetary) by abandoning conservative management. But perhaps not enough thought has been given to the consequences of abandoning conservatism; We have understood the central role of government in bearing major risks and preventing loss of income, in defining strategic procurement , reducing poverty and therefore ensuring the security of economic agents . B ut it remains unclear how the government will be able to finance these new needs and what type of government (authoritarian, ordoliberal, etc.) will be the most efficient. How to share tasks efficiently between the private sector and government also remains to be determined; We have understood the high degree of heterogeneity in our economies, between people with or without protection in labour market s , between economic sectors or companies that have suffered or benefited from the crisis, between rich countries and poor countries, etc. In particular, we have understood the extent to which crises affect young people: difficulties pursuing their education, difficulties entering the labour market; We have understood that this crisis will increase the pace of economic digitalisation (working from home, online consumption, etc.) and that we do not know exactly what consequences this development will have for growth, the location of activity , urban planning, the nature of jobs, etc.; Last, this crisis has shown the importance of international cooperation, in the areas of medicine and research, but also tax ation .