If the women in your life are stocking up on lipstick, it might be time to tighten the purse strings. What you're seeing may not be a sign of vanity; it might be an economic indicator.

Leonard Lauder says that during tough times lipstick sales zoom at his cosmetics company, Estée Lauder. When recessions set in, consumers tend to forgo luxuries and big purchases. Instead they concentrate their buying power on smaller items -- like lipstick -- to get their retail kicks. The tendency to hunker down and spend less when times are tough also characterizes investing when the financial news is bleak.

As the ghost of real estate past haunts Wall Street and economists try to discern where the buck will finally stop, Bankrate takes a look back at trends during previous financial meltdowns and what -- if anything -- we learned from them.

What goes up
Randall Parker, an economics professor at East Carolina University, says economists are about 50-50 on whether a recession is on the horizon, but if one materializes or not, slowdowns in general are normal.

One of America's first financial crises took place in 1764, when England prevented the colonies from producing paper money -- a move that advanced the cause of revolution. In 1819, the country suffered a recession following the War of 1812. Although other factors were evident (most notably banks overextending themselves), Parker says it's not uncommon for recessions to follow wars.

In 1837, the country entered a depression that lasted until 1843, a period historians have compared to the Great Depression of the 1930s. Collapse of a large life insurance company and falling grain prices combined to spook investors at that time. Land speculation, particularly that in the projected path of the railroads, also contributed to the bursting of this bubble.

The collapse of a major banking company that was also the source of railroad funding was a contributing source to the Panic of 1873. The failure of a major railroad 20 years later would also sweep the country into panic.

Short recessions dot America's financial landscape, but recessions are brief by nature, usually lasting from six to 18 months, and affecting all aspects of a country's well-being, from industry to employment.

More recently, in 1973 and 1979, oil crises sparked poor economic health. The country underwent a memorable recession in 1981, leading to the bail-out of the savings and loan industry. In the early 2000s, the dot-com bubble burst, throwing tech stocks into disarray.

"Prices were already way out of line, so it was a great time to buy stocks," Parker says of the period following the bursting of the dot-com bubble.

As for the immediate future, Parker says it's not looking so hot.

"We're in some awful squishy territory right now," he admits.