[pjfin123]

> This is "never-cracked-a-history-book" levels of incorrect. Severe depressions recurred about every other decade, and practically every decade had some sort of Global Financial Crisis-esque financial meltdown. Back then, most of these were called "Panic of <year>" instead of "depression" or "recession", until you got to the Long Depression, which was called the Great Depression before the Great Depression itself actually existed.

This is all true. However, average economic growth rates for the American economy were dramatically higher in the 1800s than they have been in the last 50 years.

[kasey_junk]

The last 50 years have seen no new American territorial expansion.

[JumpCrisscross]

Also, per-capita GDP was almost flat for the late 19th century. GDP grew because of massive immigration.