How we work

Where our numbers come from, how we use AI, and how we check everything before it goes live.

Where the numbers come from

Our data comes from official and primary sources: the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the Federal Reserve, the US Treasury, the Energy Information Administration, Freddie Mac and the FDIC, mostly through the St. Louis Fed's FRED database. Our explainers also use company annual reports and filings with the SEC. Every page lists its sources, and every chart names its source underneath.

How the data pages update

Every weekday evening, our system downloads the latest official figures. Before anything changes on the site, it checks each series: that it downloaded completely, contains only numbers, and is as recent as it should be. If any check fails, the site keeps its last good version. Release dates in our calendar come from the agencies' own published schedules.

How we use AI

We use AI tools to help research, write and draw our charts, and to make our animated videos. AI never supplies a number. Every number in an explainer is tied to a fact in our research file, and every fact has a source.

Our fact check

Before a page can be published, an automatic check reads every sentence. Each number must appear in the source fact the sentence cites, or the page is not published. The same check rejects advice language. Our videos go through the same fact file and a human review before they are released.

Explain, never advise

We explain how money works. We don't recommend investments, products or decisions, and nothing here is financial advice. For decisions about your own money, talk to a qualified professional.

Reusing our data

The figures on our data pages come from the official sources listed on each page. Data from US government agencies (the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the Energy Information Administration, the Federal Reserve, the Treasury and the FDIC) is in the public domain; the Freddie Mac mortgage survey belongs to Freddie Mac and is shown with credit. You may quote our numbers, charts and text if you credit Economy Studio and link to the page you used. Please don't copy whole pages.

Corrections

If we get something wrong, we fix it and say so on our corrections page, with the date and what changed.