Need some optimism? Here are ten great companies started in rotten times:

General Electric (1892, one year prior to the panic of 1893)
Disney (recession of 1923–24)
Hewlett-Packard (1939)
Hyatt Corp. (1957–58 recession)
Intel (1968, a year of assassinations and political upheaval)
FedEx (founded in 1971 but launched in 1973, the same year as the Arab [...]