Troubled waters
Subtitle: thirty years in the river business
By: by Jack Lambert
Publisher: Riverwise, Inc.
Published: 2012
Place of publication: [Winona, Minn.]
Language: eng
Number of pages: 108
ISBN-13: 9780965395007
Subjects: Barges; Transportation; Shipyards; Business cycles; History; Financial crisis; Inland water transportation; Floods; Export controls; Chalands; Aspect économique; Chantiers navals; Cycles économiques; Histoire; Transports de navigation intérieure; Inondations; Exportations; Contrôle; Economic aspects; Twin City Barge & Towing Co
Description: Over a 30-year period, from the 1950s to the 80s, a large segment of the Mississippi River barge transportation industry boomed and then collapsed. Many barge lines and half a dozen inland shipyards suffered financial failures. The primary causes were government intervention in environmental and transportation policy; government tax-shelter policy; and the influence of half a dozen multinational grain companies on the barge freight marketplace. As CEO of a St. Paul-based barge line, Jack Lambert lived through that business cycle, making and losing a fortune. His recollections of that period and the events that shaped it are tempered by the perspective that another three decades have provided. The eventful journey includes floods, fires, sinkings, union strife, and the legion of unforgettable characters and situations that he encountered along the way.
Notes: John W. (Jack) Lambert worked in the barge industry for 30 years, as CEO of the Twin City Barge & Towing Company. In Troubled Waters, he chronicles the rise and decline of the business, from its boom years in the 1960s and '70s, to its collapse in the '80s. "The world has just evolved and the barge industry with it," said Lambert. "A lot of jobs were lost." Troubled Waters is published on the heels of The Battle of Otter Tail County, Lambert's first novel, which was released in 2011. Prior to his fiction debut, Lambert, an air force veteran who served in the Korean War, penned 18 military history books. This is Lambert's first memoir, but not his last. He is currently working on two private memoir projects. Dogs Who Have Owned Me pays homage to his many beloved canine companions. The second project is a personal life history. Both are being written expressly for Lambert's three children and six grandchildren. --Website.
Table of contents: title: On-the-job training; title: Branching out; title: Perils of the river; title: That toddlin' town; title: Again, the 100-year flood; title: Growing pains; title: Environmental wars; title: The river conventions; title: Lambert of Arabia; title: The perils of Washington, D.C.; title: The investor-barge virus; title: The ADM two-step; title: River people.