The Federal Reserve decided on Wednesday to keep interest rates stable, signaling that its fight against inflation is not over yet. But despite persistent inflation, the overall economy appears quite strong, with gross domestic product rising in the last quarter and consumers continuing to spend.
So what do current economic conditions mean for businesses?
“Marketplace” host Kai Ryssdal spoke with Austin Golding, CEO of Golding Barge Line, a family-owned business in Vicksburg, Mississippi, to find out. Below is an edited transcript of the conversation.
Kai Ryssdal: First thing’s first, how’s business going in the barge business?
Austin Golding: The volumes are good. We are seeing that our business is definitely better this year than when I talked to you in previous years. I think we’ve seen a lot of stabilization in our volumes and demand. And we haven’t had things like pandemics to try to recover from or deal with. We had a lack of water, which we dealt with. we had a low water condition throughout the lower Mississippi River Valley. But we persevered and this year has been quite consistent, predictable and profitable.
Ryssdal: This strength that you are seeing is a function of the strength of the economy, right? The underlying fundamentals, as politicians like to say, are good. And so, you’re seeing this.
Gold: We are. But, you know, we’re seeing that the inflation that we’ve all experienced is still lingering in the new construction and repair part of our business.
Ryssdal: Oh, tell me more about that.
Gold: You know, building our equipment is more expensive than ever, repairing it is more expensive than ever. My ability to grow is really inhibited by this cost structure.
Ryssdal: Yes, we’ve been talking for a long time, you and I, and I never asked that and I probably should have. Where does Golding Barge Line fit into the pantheon of Mississippi river barge companies? Are you giants? Are you average size? What are you?
Gold: Well, the short answer is average. A more detailed answer, in the tank barge world, I think we are somewhere between number 10 and number 15, with the unique arrangement, I would say, that we operate nationwide. You have a lot of regional carriers that may be bigger than us, but our ability to operate nationwide is really what separates us.
Ryssdal: How do you get across the country from the Mississippi River? Do you go to the Gulf and go to other waterways, or do you just go up and around the Mississippi?
Gold: Well, I’m glad you brought that up. You know, we’re connected, not just through the parts of the country that everyone is familiar with, like the Ohio River and the Illinois River. But we also went all the way up the Gulf Coast, from Brownsville, Texas, to Panama City, Florida, which includes a lot of locks and dams that helped connect us to the system down there that’s really aging and really starting to come in. at the end of its useful life.
Ryssdal: You know, it’s interesting, you mentioned locks and dams and, by extension, infrastructure, because we’ve been doing a lot of infrastructure in this program with the CHIPS bill and the infrastructure bill and everything. What I hear is that maritime infrastructure is not getting the attention it needs.
Gold: No, it’s not. I think we are easily forgotten because there are no barriers and dams in everyday life. You will use the same roads, you will use the same railways, you will use the same airports, but locks and dams and dredging are things that are out of sight, out of mind and have a huge impact on everyday life. . It’s much harder to lobby for this when the average person isn’t as aware of it.
Ryssdal: Do you get a good response when you lobby? And I imagine you spend your time, some of it, on the phone with your congressional relatives and all that?
Gold: Oh yeah. You know, Kai, everyone loves an infrastructure idea until they have to pay for it. And, you know, the Democratic side, of course, has its methods of paying for this, which is a higher tax platform. And Republicans typically want to tax themselves to death. So, I find myself in a very purple mood, walking around and asking for these infrastructure projects. And I’m going to introduce some speed dating for you. There are four locks in the New Orleans area that actually allow our Gulf Coast product to come and go. All were built between 1923 and 1961. There are four locks and dams that have suffered interruptions in the last six months. These four lockdowns have left the American consumer paying a lot of extra money due to underinvestment in their health and well-being.
Ryssdal: Well, you have a key point there, right? You have to pass on these costs. You just have to.
Gold: Well, there is no choice. I mean, in a lot of these cases, there’s no pipeline to build. There is no railway branch to jump. And there is certainly no highway to compensate for that kind of tonnage. These are things that our country could invest in and that would bring great benefits to everyone and would allow, I think, new projects to be launched and not just existing projects to benefit.
Ryssdal: Do you still have your captain’s license, or whatever it is, needed to operate these barges?
Gold: In truth no. Speaking of economics, I entered the working world here in 2009. I was sent to Houston with a new suit my dad bought for me so we could find some business to survive on, and unfortunately, I didn’t get the shipboard experience I was hoping for.
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