Recessions and depressions

A Wells Fargo office is shown, Wednesday, Jan. 13, 2021 in New York. Wells Fargo & Co. says its profit rose 4% to $2.99 billion in the fourth quarter of 2020. The bank, based in San Francisco, said Friday that it had earnings of 64 cents per share, compared with earnings of 60 cents a year earlier. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan)

A woman wearing a face covering walks past a shop window in London, Thursday, Jan. 14, 2021 during England's third national lockdown to curb the spread of coronavirus. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth)

Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell testifies before a House Financial Services Committee hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, Dec. 2, 2020. (Greg Nash/Pool via AP)

FILE - In this Tuesday, Feb. 25, 2020 file photo, Electric car ID.3 cars stand at the factory area during a press tour at the plant of the German manufacturer Volkswagen AG ,VW, in Zwickau, Germany. Automaker Volkswagen tripled sales of battery-only cars last year as its new electric compact ID.3 came on the market ahead of tough new limits on auto emissions. (AP Photo/Jens Meyer, file)

FILE - This May 22, 2020, file photo shows the Federal Reserve building in Washington. Newly released transcripts show that many Federal Reserve officials had concerns in late 2015 over whether they were making a mistake in raising a key interest rate for the first time in nearly decade. Transcripts of their discussions, released Friday, Jan. 8, 2021 showed that the chief concern was whether the Fed would be acting prematurely in starting to raise rates given how low inflation was at the time. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky, File)

FILE - In this Dec. 14, 2020 file photo, Zeida Hernandez, of Tampa, Fla., left, makes Factory Throwout cigars using an antique hand-operated cigar machine at the J.C. Newman Cigar Co., Tampa's last cigar factory, in Fla. American factories grew in December at the fastest pace in more than two years as manufacturing continued to weather the pandemic better than the battered services sector. (Douglas R. Clifford/Tampa Bay Times via AP)

A "Now Hiring" sign hangs on the front wall of a Harbor Freight Tools store, Thursday, Dec. 10, 2020, in Manchester, N.H. The number of Americans seeking unemployment benefits fell by 19,000 to a still-high 787,000, evidence that the job market remains under stress as a resurgent coronavirus continues to batter the economy. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)

A hiring sign shows outside of Gray M. Sanborn Elementary School in Palatine, Ill., Thursday, Nov. 5, 2020. Illinois reports biggest spike in unemployment claims of all states. On Wednesday, Dec. 23, the number of Americans seeking unemployment benefits fell by 89,000 last week to a still-elevated 803,000, evidence that the job market remains under stress nine months after the coronavirus outbreak sent the U.S. economy into recession and caused millions of layoffs. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh)

In this Dec. 15, 2029, photo, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Ky., walks past reporters on Capitol Hill in Washington. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

A woman wears a face mask as she steps out of Bank underground station, in London, Tuesday, Dec. 8, 2020. The United Kingdom is beginning a mass vaccination campaign to inoculate the population against COVID-19 virus, with the elderly, vulnerable and key workers among the first to receive the first part of the inoculation. (AP Photo/Alberto Pezzali)