Rampage

This guy was a small business owner slash scientist who developed a powerful exoskeleton, but the Fat Cat corporations basically squeezed him out of business. Naturally, he became a supervillain, calling himself Rampage, and was determined to fight back against the economy in pretty literal terms. You see, it was for the Champions comic, dated 1976, and there was a recession going on.

Years later, Rampage created a several suits of armor in order to outfit an entire team to follow his modus operandi of performing robberies in the name of an anti-economic crusade. He even called them his Recession Raiders. You see, it was for the Wonder Man comic, and it was dated 1992, and there was a recession going on.

Years later, now just plain ol' Stuart Clarke, this guy was discovered as a kind of Tinkerer who outfitted supervillains with their weaponry.  He then became the supplier for the Punisher in that guy's quest to fight against such supervillains. You see, this was in Punisher War Journal in 2007 and, well, uh, wow. Would you look at that? There was soon the most severe economic crisis of the past century. 

Damn! Forget financial indicators! You gotta use this guy as your barometer for economic stability! 

Also, there have been a lot of financial crises over the years.