What should be done with the long-lasting private savings surplus that the coronavirus crisis is likely to bring about in the euro zone?
The coronavirus crisis and the resulting long- lasting uncertaint y are likely to result in precautionary private sector savings in the euro zone and a lasting weakness in investment, and therefore to a long-term private sector savings surplus that will even exceed the surplus seen since the subprime crisis in the euro zone. What economic policy should be pursued if there is a massive and long-lasting private savings surplus in the euro zone? Unless there is a corrective economic policy, this savings surplus would, as we have seen since 2012, be lent to the rest of the world, in particular to the United States, which is absurd; Euro-zone countries could absorb this excess savings by running up permanent fiscal deficits; we would then be in a "Japanese-style" situation with a continuous increase in these countries' public debt, which is unlikely; The most appropriate economic policy seems to be massive support for corporate investment combined with the absorption of the excess private savings at the European level, through the financing of a large European (or euro-zone) investment fund.