All economic arguments boil down to Main Street vs. Wall Street.

Mayor of Main St.

This is the driving principle behind Main Street Economics. Whether it is monetary policy which allows zombie companies to remain around only to service its debt or laws that disproportionately address financial disparities of the cities while leaving out the rural. The goal of this website is to bring to light the under reported economic issues affecting Main Street and the collateral damage it sustains to the benefit of Wall Street.

Whenever a new bill in congress or policy move at the Fed is announced, predominately how it positively affects Wall Street is addressed.  Main Street is often left to the wayside or expected to reap benefits from the residual.  The obvious cases are things like the 2008 bailouts where a lot of money was allocated to bailout the banks. These examples are specific points in time where we can see the cause and effect relationship of policy actions. What is less obvious are things like moving off the gold standard where the effect has been happening over decades. One off bills or long-term trends, what unites them together is how much less they help Main Street or worse, how they hurt it.

For the purpose of the site Main Street has a broad definition. The best way to describe it would be to drive down Main Street of my hometown of 10,000. As you approach town getting off the interstate you first come across a section I would refer to as “New Main Street.” Here you will find large chain fast food restaurants and retailers attracted to the traffic going down the freeway. As you move closer to town you start to move back in time. The 1960’s section contains a now empty mall, manufacturing plants, and strip malls. Finally, in the old section of Main Street you feel like you are on a Hollywood movie portrayal of what they thought a turn of the century main street was like. Except it is real. Old Main Street contains 1880’s buildings, some with original tenants, others with the building intact but new owners. Some of the shops have more than a few locations, none all publicly traded, and all have owners in workers who are a part of the community. Make no mistake from the freeway to the old town, all of it is Main Street.

– The Mayor, Main St. Economics