Which industries/sectors/services etc usually do well in times of economic recession?

Question

By 'doing well' I mean they either see upturn in popularity/sales/importance.

Answer 1

In an economic recession, governments intervene to try to stimulate domestic consumption and according to Keynes they should increase public spending in building infrastructure such as roads, bridges, hospitals or through redevelopment of underutilised land. This puts money in terms of wages into the pockets of workers engaged in these projects and as a result they spend it (see the Circular Flow of Income and the Multiplier for economic theories of how this increases aggregate demand).
Governments that follow the Monetarist views seek to control the supply of money in an economy so that traders are forced to lower prices in order to sell goods and services. Governments reduce the money supply by raising the minimum lending rate so that consumers are paying more interest on loans and mortgages and have less money to spend on goods and services that traders want to sell. This has a twofold effect:
1. It reduces prices, therefore inflation is reduced and theoretically makes the country's exports cheaper, but this advantage may be lost by the second effect.
2. Because interest rates are so much higher, foreign investors lend money to the banks because they earn more interest than from other countries. This injects a large amount of foreign currency into the Circular Flow and raises the exchange rate for that country's currency making its exports more expensive!
Finally, if you look up a list of "Giffen" goods, you will find that when money is tight, consumers buy lower priced substitutes, e.g., more soups, potatoes and bread and less ready meals.
This is a start for you.

Answer 2

Everything declines during a rescission but as the interest rates fall bank profits increase because the pay less on deposit but get the old interest on long term loans.

Answer 3

liquor
tobacco
firearms