Iran nuclear deal: Saudi Arabia warns it will strike out on its own

[happyslug]

27. The Civil War Debt was paid off in 1874

And that rapid pay off, to get the US Dollar back to $20 to an ounce of Gold, caused the "Long Depression" of 1873-1898. Prior to the 1930s it was referred to as the "Great Depression" till the Depression of the 1930s took over that name.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long_Depression

Now some historians like using 1873-1879 and then call the subsequent bad period a boom broken by several other recessions as opposed to one long bad time period. The next recession was in 1882 to 1885, then 1887 to 1888, then 1890-1891, then 1893 to 1894 then 1895-1897. At that point you had massive gold coming from then new mines in Australia, South African and Alaska that lead to "Gold Inflation", i.e. what $20 in gold could buy in 1897, fell as this new gold lead to a drop in demand for gold. This inflation was what was needed and produced a post 1897 boom, that was seperated by mild recessions till 1907.

List of US recessions:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_recessions_in_the_United_States

Following the end of the episode in 1879, the U.S. economy would remain unstable, experiencing recessions for 114 of the 253 months until January 1901

Just pointing out the Civil War Debt has been paid off (Now Pensions lasted longer, the last one died in January 2003, yes the 21st century). Thus the DEBT was paid off, but Pensions continued to be paid till 2003 (The actual pensions were quite small, not increases after the reform of Pension Law in the late 1950s. While the original pensions did not increase, such widows were eligible for the "Improved Pension" program if they income was low (which was the case of the last Union Civil War Widow).