I'm John Batchelor, Lancaster County, the best county in the Keystone state,

Jim McTay, former Washington editor

Barron's magazine, now a novelist in Lancaster County, to watch around him the slow growth

that shows up in the numbers for the fourth quarter GDP. Wall Street Journal headline,

economic growth slowed in fourth quarter, hurt by shutdown. Subhead,

U.S. gross domestic product grew at 1.4 percent annual rate in 2025's final quarter. In

addition, there is news from the Supreme Court that the emergency invoked by the President on April 1st,

2025 to justify tariffs around the world

is unconstitutionally interpreted. Illegal is also a word that's used. And the President and

the White House now must calculate what they must give back to those who are charged tariff costs.

The ruling puts $133 billion in a state of limbo, says the Wall Street Journal.

The Supreme Court's decision puts into issue billions collected over the past year.

Jim, I come to you because from your vantage in Lancaster, you've been observing a slowdown in the economy

all of last year, certainly from last summer. We now see the slowdown at 1.4%. What are you seeing

now, Mr. McTaghan, winter 2026? Good evening to you. Good evening, John. Well, you mentioned winter.

That hasn't been a help to the economy. It keeps people at home, but retail shoppers have been reticent to begin with. I mean, there's a split. The factories here are going great guns, but they're not hiring. They're not firing. They're not hiring. But they're parking lots of full.

If you talk to restaurant owners and retailers, it's day by day. The economy has been pretty

flat. The flow of customers is unpredictable, both because of the weather and because

customers have

become more penurious. They're being squeezed. You know, prices seem higher for food. It may not

be related to government policies, but, you know, beef is high because there's a cattle shortage.

Cod is high because there's a cattle shortage. Cod is high because there's a cod shortage.

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