I have reviewed a large number of recessions going back centuries, and there seems to be a common thread. A situation occurs where there is excess money in the money supply. This makes it much easier to acquire debt. With all this money sloshing around, eventually a thing comes about that appears to be very profitable to a lot of people so people take out debt to invest in the profitable thing. Eventually, the apparently profitable thing ends up proving not to be nearly as profitable as everyone thought, causing the value of that thing to collapse. At that time, the banks are holding excessive debt which all goes bad at the same time, the banks have to eat that loss, and this causes a massive reduction in the money supply. This is the business cycle. It's not the only thing that causes recessions as we will see, but it is a major theme occurring throughout many recessions.
The government spent too much money in 1812, expanding the money supply and artificially making credit easy to get. European governments artificially induced a state where US food producers were doing very good by fighting the Napoleonic wars and destroying a lot of food production capacity, which created a speculative bubble in US farming. When the bubble collapsed, a huge number of people couldn't pay their debts back, causing a defaults, bank closures, and a recession.
In 1837, the government began forcing people to pay for government land with gold or silver. Andrew Jackson had eliminated the central bank during his presidency, with the intent of removing cheap debt from the economy. The banks responded by printing paper currency, which meant debt was artificially easy to get(Why was this legal?). The restriction on buying government land drove up land prices, which led to a speculative bubble in which people took out paper debt to buy gold or silver. When the bubble collapsed, a huge number of people couldn't pay their debts back, causing a defaults, bank closures, and a recession.
In 1857, the California gold rush caused a huge influx of gold into the economy. This had two effects: First, a speculative bubble in railroads, and second, easy access to credit. When the bubble collapsed, a huge number of people couldn't pay their debts back, causing a defaults, bank closures, and a recession.
In 1873, following the end of the civil war, a huge number of people were released from military service, and the money supply was massively increased by federal spending. This created a speculative bubble in railway industries, and provided easy access to credit. When the bubble collapsed, a huge number of people couldn't pay their debts back, causing a defaults, bank closures, and a recession.
In 1893, the Sherman Silver Purchase act remonetized silver, causing inflation which led to an easy supply of credit. Unlike other recessions, this one was caused by massive protective tarrifs of the McKinley tarrif act, which instead of causing an artificial bubble, instead collapsed the value of healthy markets by forcing a heavy tax burden on manufacturers and farms who relied on imported parts.
In 1907, J. P. Morgan stopped a recession from happening by providing capital during a period that saw many central banks around the world, which led to the creation of the New York federal reserve bank.
European governments once again destroyed their agricultural output with the onset of World War I. Further, the creation of the New York federal reserve bank made credit easily available by eliminating the risk of bank runs. The Homesteader's act was altered to allow land that couldn't be irrigated to be sold. The combination of Europe's war and America's deregulation created a massive speculative bubble, which was supported by a few unusually wet seasons. The unusually wet seasons ended causing a collapse of the speculative market, one of the worst environmental catastrophes of American history. When the bubble collapsed, a huge number of people couldn't pay their debts back AND suddenly had farms they couldn't even farm on, causing a defaults, bank closures, and a recession.
The Y2k bubble was one of the few bubbles fueled by non-government interference. A simple mathematics issue caused every industry on the planet to spend money ensuring their businesses would continue functioning during the year 2000, causing the incredible speculative bubble in tech. This speculative bubble was fueled by record low interest rates, leading to easy credit. When the bubble collapsed, a huge number of people couldn't pay their debts back, but a new speculative bubble in housing was brewed and interest rates were brought even lower.
In 2008, housing prices were artificially driven up by reducing legislation regulating lending standards sending lots of people into the market at once. Then, interest rates were driven very low by the central bank, both of which created a climate of incredibly easy credit. When the bubble collapsed, a huge number of people couldn't pay their debts back, causing a defaults, bank closures, and a recession.
Today, we have a situation that seems tailor made to cause a recession. The COVID lockdowns led to unprecedented fiscal and monetary stimulus, which has caused the markets to boom for no good reason. Despite the world economy being markedly worse than 2 years ago, most markets are at or near record highs. Interest rates spent a long time at or near zero, and the central bank pumped massive amounts of liquidity into the system. It appears inevitable now that inflation is rising that rates must rise, the bubble will collapse, a huge number of people won't be able to pay their debts back, causing defaults, bank closures, and a recession.