With a lack of trust comes instability. A working paper published by the National Bureau of Economic Research in 2018 (and updated in 2021) found that in democracies, the less faith people have in their government and social structures, the more likely it is that an economic crisis will lead to a change in political leadership.

Less-trustful societies are angrier ones. Instead of giving the political leadership the benefit of the doubt and expressing faith in their ability to steer us through crisis, many people blame the party in power for whatever ills befall our society. They throw the bums out — which, if it happens this November, means the political party controlling Congress will be the one populated by many officials who say they believe the 2020 election was stolen.

Finally, recessions strain society and bring out the worst in many of us. Some people might like to imagine the Great Depression as a time of “Waltons”-esque family solidarity, but it was also a time of religious and ethnic hatred, with millions falling under the thrall of authoritarian governments in places including Germany and the Soviet Union. The Great Recession gave us the tea party, a movement fueled, in part, by racial animus. That, too, increases during economic downturns.