The association is clear but government response may limit its extent Financial recessions and their socioeconomic sequelae can have diverse consequences for population health, a fact that has attracted considerable attention since the 2008 global financial crisis.1 It has long been known that economic conditions can influence suicide rates.2 The depression of the late 1920s to early 1930s was associated with marked rises in suicide, especially in men, which parallelled increases in unemployment.3 The Asian economic recession of 1997-98 was also followed by rising suicide rates, which reflected financial and unemployment indices.4 In a linked article (doi:10.1136/bmj.f5239), Chang and colleagues identified an impact of the 2008 global economic downturn on suicide by comparing numbers of suicides in 53 countries in 2009 with numbers expected on the basis of 2000-07 trends.5 Excess numbers of suicides occurred in many of the countries, especially in Europe and the United States, particularly in men and young people. The rise in suicides correlated with the extent of increased unemployment, with the effect being greatest in countries …