Other people have given you pretty good answers already, but... If you're an individual with some spare cash, buying stocks during a recession is probably a go

Other people have given you pretty good answers already, but... If you're an individual with some spare cash, buying stocks during a recession is probably a good idea, even if they falling.* If you're a population, you probably don't have much spare cash. There's some time lag stuff going on in there too. *Blah blah 1990s Japan blah blah global diversification.