I agree: since we&#x27;re giving away free money, we might as well try to get something in return. But that&#x27;s the beauty of our current system: one side gets money <i>without</i> having to give anything back. Companies would be <i>suckers</i> for agreeing to do anything in exchange for government money, today. Why do anything, when they can sit on their free non-inflating money and even <i>get paid</i> for it when rates go negative?<p>Which is why any real recovery from the current state of play can only be led by industrial and economic policy <i>led by the State itself</i>. The State will have to mass-hire and build something, anything, to kickstart new economic activity, because the private sector is just not going to do anything.