The European surveillance of national budgetary policies revealed itself to be inadequate; it had been weakened at the initiative of the three largest countries in the middle of the last  BIS central bankers’ speeches  3  decade, precisely when it became essential.
But as the pace of the expansion has stepped up over the past several quarters, we have begun to see both sustained advances in output per hour and gains in jobs. I suspect that productivity will eventually slow from the extraordinary pace of the past couple of years - indeed, the recent figures offer some evidence that some slowing has already occurred.