62: Economic Slowdown and Election Observations in Indiana and Pennsylvania. Jim McTague identifies signs of an economic slowdown affecting people beyond the lowest economic rung. Restaurant business in Indiana is down 3 to 5%, and expensive home renovations
The John Batchelor Show
John Batchelor
4.5 • 2.8K Ratings
🗓️ 8 November 2025
⏱️ 9 minutes
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| 0:00.0 | This is CBS Eye on the World. |
| 0:08.6 | Here's John Batchelor. |
| 0:10.4 | Jim McTag, former Washington editor of Barron's Magazine, now a novelist in Lancaster County, |
| 0:15.8 | back from Indiana, returning just in time to give us metrics in Indiana and in Pennsylvania at the same time before and after election day. |
| 0:27.5 | Jim, a very good evening to you. You were in Valparaiso for several days, and you had conversations with the manager of a popular restaurant and a contractor hanging a front door. |
| 0:38.0 | What did you learn from the restaurant tour? |
| 0:40.8 | How's business? |
| 0:41.7 | Good evening to you. |
| 0:43.2 | Oh, good evening, John. |
| 0:44.0 | And let me say the leaves were nicer in Indiana than in Pennsylvania. |
| 0:47.4 | Porter County, a lovely place. |
| 0:50.9 | We went to dinner at the journeyman distillery, which has a union hall restaurant. |
| 0:56.8 | It's a magnificent facility. |
| 0:59.2 | It's in a factory that was built right after the Civil War as a woolen mill and underwent a $40 million renovation. |
| 1:08.9 | I talked to the manager. |
| 1:10.5 | On the weekend, all 160 tables were filled |
| 1:13.3 | with people waiting, but he told me, in general, businesses off three to five percent this |
| 1:20.5 | year versus last year, as people are much more careful with their spending. Let me add that when I got the bill, there was a dollar |
| 1:30.0 | fee for historic renovations or preservation, historic preservation. I don't think I've ever |
| 1:36.9 | been into a restaurant outside of Italy before where something like that showed up on the check. |
| 1:45.3 | My daughter is getting a hugely expensive front door put into her house. |
| 1:51.8 | It's a $10,000 double door with glass panels, very elaborate. |
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