By Dr. David Eifrig
A Step Back From Crisis
Forget Warren Buffett and George Soros for a minute... Instead, think about a different investor – a young woman named Alexandra Bergson. She arrived in the Nebraska plains with her brothers around the turn of the 20th century. Their parents were Swedish immigrants who had set out to become farmers. But early on, things looked bad... Their corn crop failed. Trying to make up the loss, they planted a bigger crop the next year. But that failed, too. Nebraska had gone barren. Farmers were going bankrupt. Many gave up on the land and moved back to Illinois or Iowa to find jobs. During the second year of failed crops, the Bergson family was considering leaving as well. That was when Alexandra made a critical decision...
She traveled from the Nebraska highlands to the farms near the river and spent a week interviewing people there. These farms were doing better. Alexandra returned convinced her family could follow the example of the river land, which had been settled a few years before, and learn how to work the highland. Alexandra pushed her family to mortgage its property and scoop up all the land it could from frustrated and scared farmers. Her brothers worried that everyone else would think they were crazy. But her plan prevailed... And it paid off. Over the next 16 years, the Bergsons become among the wealthiest landowners in the area...
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American Consequences
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