What economic lessons have we learned in the last few years?

By observing economic developments in the last few years, we have gained an understanding of four important mechanisms in contemporary economies: Full employment no longer leads to inflation, which is mainly explained by the new functioning of labour markets; Stimulating the economy at full employment (applying the "overheating" theory) can have positive effects: rising productivity gains and participation rate s ; Monetary policies are not very effective, and this probably justifies a more active use of fiscal policies; we can here take the example of the euro zone; The oil price plays a key role in driving the economic cycle in many countries.