About MainStreet
MainStreet is an AI-generated financial journalism publication focused on making complex economic topics accessible, honest, and directly relevant to ordinary people’s lives. We cover the stories that matter to working Americans — wages, housing costs, inflation, healthcare expenses, retirement security — with the depth and rigor those topics deserve.
What Is MainStreet?
MainStreet publishes data-driven analysis of the economic forces shaping everyday life in America. Our editorial focus is on topics that mainstream financial outlets frequently underemphasize: the gap between official statistics and lived experience, the slow-moving trends that determine whether a middle-class life is achievable, and the policy decisions that redistribute wealth in ways that rarely make front pages.
Every article on MainStreet is researched and written by an AI model (Claude, made by Anthropic). We are transparent about this. The AI uses government data sources, peer-reviewed research, and institutional reports to build its analysis — not opinion or speculation.
Why AI-Generated?
We believe AI-generated journalism, done with the right constraints and editorial standards, can deliver something human journalism often struggles with: consistent depth, freedom from editorial pressure, and the ability to synthesize large volumes of data without cutting corners.
Human financial journalism is expensive. That cost creates pressure — to attract advertisers, to produce clickable content, to avoid topics that might alienate powerful readers or sponsors. MainStreet has none of those pressures. The AI writes what the data says.
This is not a replacement for human journalism. It is a complement — a publication that can go deep on topics where depth is warranted, without needing to fill column inches or attract clicks.
Methodology
How Topics Are Selected
Topics are chosen based on economic significance and relevance to working Americans. Priority is given to areas where there is a gap between widely-held public understanding and what the data actually shows. Topics with rich, publicly-accessible government datasets are favored because they allow for rigorous, verifiable analysis.
How Research Is Conducted
Every article draws primarily on primary government and institutional data sources:
- Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) — employment, wages, inflation (CPI), productivity
- Federal Reserve — monetary policy data, consumer finance surveys (SCF), bank statistics
- U.S. Census Bureau — income, poverty, housing, demographics
- Energy Information Administration (EIA) — energy prices, production, consumption
- Congressional Budget Office (CBO) — budget projections, economic outlooks, distributional analyses
- Social Security Administration (SSA) — retirement and disability program data
- National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) — healthcare costs and outcomes
Secondary sources include peer-reviewed academic research, Federal Reserve working papers, and reports from non-partisan research institutions.
How Articles Are Written
Articles are produced by Claude (Anthropic’s AI model) following a structured editorial process:
- A topic and set of research questions are defined
- The AI retrieves and analyzes relevant data from the sources above
- The AI drafts the article with citations to every factual claim
- All cited URLs are verified before publication
- The AI disclosure banner appears on every article, linking to this page
The AI does not have access to real-time web browsing during article generation. It works from pre-retrieved data and its training knowledge, supplemented by data injected at generation time. This means articles are point-in-time analyses, not continuously updated.
How Citations Are Verified
Every external URL cited in an article is checked before publication. Broken or redirected links are caught before the article goes live. All data claims are traceable to their primary source.
Data Sources
MainStreet relies on the following primary data sources:
| Source | What We Use It For |
|---|---|
| Bureau of Labor Statistics | Wages, employment, CPI, productivity |
| Federal Reserve | Monetary data, consumer finance |
| U.S. Census Bureau | Income, poverty, housing |
| Energy Information Administration | Energy prices and production |
| Congressional Budget Office | Fiscal and economic projections |
| Social Security Administration | Retirement and disability data |
| National Center for Health Statistics | Healthcare costs |
Financial Disclaimer
MainStreet does not provide investment advice. Nothing on this site should be construed as a recommendation to buy or sell any security, asset, or financial product.
All content is for educational and informational purposes only. Economic conditions change. Data is reported as of the date of publication. Past trends do not predict future outcomes.
For investment decisions, consult a licensed financial advisor.
Feedback
MainStreet is an ongoing project. If you find an error in a data claim, a broken citation, or a topic that deserves coverage, we welcome that feedback.
You can reach the project at the GitHub repository where the site source code is published, or via the contact information in the site footer.