Believe it or not, a tough economy sometimes can spur a number of different industries and ways of making money. The repo business is the obvious joke - spiking in times of a tough economy. But take something more real though like the price of gold, which has skyrocketed as the dollar struggles, and you think there is plenty of opportunity there. Hosting gold parties, for instance, is a perfect home business in times of a troubled economy - it takes no money to do (if you team up with a gold buying company) and you can make a good amount of money while having fun over the course of one evening.