Studs Entry 2

        The first thoughts that I had regarding Arthur Robertson's story began with the fact that he was a very wealthy individual. I guessed that he had made a lot of money in some sort of stock or investing situations. I also questioned his integrity; I wondered weather he had connections to casino sharks or other shaky situations like that. I saw the fact that he was the man that everyone looked to for loans as an important detail. Another important detail was the ideas that he was smart enough to buy old, cheep broken down businesses. He also always seemed to know when to get out, especially when he said "We decided to take every dollar out of the banks" right before the crisis. Another piece of key text from the interview was when he "suicides left and right" because it shows the true impact that people felt during the great depression. The final key piece of text that I found as when he said "What's the use having 10 million if you can't have big money?" This piece seemed to be a central idea regarding the economic status of people during this time period. I had a few questions as I was reading. I was confused as to how he was making all of these good choices and was he educated in economics? This connects to our conversation regarding suicides because his good friend killed himself. Also this connects to my family during the great depression because they were fortunate to have a good amount of money. They were also able to make some good investments when the market was so down.

The first thoughts I had regarding Oscar Heline was that he was a farmer. He was the "old man" so he was obviously very knowledgeable. I also thought about the hardships that he must have faced because he lost a lot of value in his crops and his land. The first important detail that I noticed was that farmers were using crops, such as grain and corn, for heat. This shows that there was hyperinflation because the values were not worth selling. I also found it was interesting the way that people many a ton of money off of the poverty of other people. It was also very important that the government finally stepped in to make a difference. Heline said that he "wants to be an honorable individual"and this show that the situation really hurt this desire. Heline also described the situation as "this was a struggle between halves and have not." I think this basically sums up the entire situation. The farmers were unfortunately part of the have not. The question that was raised was the question as to why the government did not set in earlier? I also wondered why WWII was a big boost for farmers? This connects to our class because we talked about that acts that tried to regulate the farm industry.