Six Hundred Atlantic

Artificial intelligence is dominating the news cycle and conversations everywhere. This technology has already had huge social, economic, and environmental effects. Meanwhile, other emerging technologies are enabling services that could also have major impacts, such as fintech lending and the use of digital footprints to assess credit worthiness.

In this episode of Six Hundred Atlantic, we’ll take a close look at how evolving technologies might affect our economic future. And we’ll examine what we need to watch out for and how we can make sure these changes bring broad benefits.

Visit bostonfed.org to learn more about the 2026 Technology-Enabled Disruption Conference, “Shaping the Future of Finance and Payments,” and check out video from the event. For more interviews and analysis of the economy in New England and nationwide, visit bostonfed.org/sixhundredatlantic.aspx. Subscribe to our email list to stay updated on new episodes.

Have you ever received a message claiming your unpaid highway tolls will head to collections unless you pay right away? Or maybe you tried to buy something secondhand online, but the seller went silent after you sent money through a payment app?

These are examples of payment fraud, and its rise is the flip side of technology that helps us send money easier and faster than ever. That speed has unlocked new levels of convenience, but it can also create challenges when something goes wrong.

Staci Shatsoff, a secure payments expert at the Boston Fed, explains how consumers can spot fraud risk and better protect themselves from payment fraud on an ever-evolving payments landscape. 

Researchers know a lot about household income because the topic is well-studied and has huge implications for financial health. But what about wealth, a family's assets minus their liabilities? Much less is known about wealth, even though it's also critically important.

A new Federal Reserve Bank of Boston survey of more than 5,000 families – called Mass ECHOS –gives a detailed look at household wealth in Massachusetts.

A report on the survey examines median family net wealth in a variety of demographic breakdowns, including age, race, geography, and education. It also measures which families have sufficient wealth to handle routine but difficult expenses, such as a car repair or a move. We discuss the report with the Boston Fed’s Prabal Chakrabarti and Beth Mattingly, two of the people most responsible for making Mass ECHOS happen.

The paper on the survey, titled “Family wealth in Massachusetts,” was co-authored by Mattingly, Sara Chaganti, Michael Evangelist, Marija Bingulac, and Gracie L. Griffin.

Read an article about Mass ECHOS and its results: Headline of article and link.

For more interviews and analysis of the economy in New England and nationwide, visit BostonFed.org/SixHundredAtlantic.aspx. Subscribe to our email list to stay updated on new episodes.

Not too long ago, people had just a handful of options for making payments: Think cash, checks, and wire transfers. But the number of payment options available to the average person has exploded since the rise of smartphones – and so have AI scams, deepfake scams, and overall fraud risk.

Fed payments fraud expert Mike Timoney discusses why these crimes are becoming more popular, the impacts of rapidly evolving technology in payments, and how people can better protect themselves from fraud and scams.

Timoney is a vice president of secure payments at the Boston Fed. Visit BostonFed.org to learn more about how the Federal Reserve is tracking an increase in synthetic identity fraud. You can also listen to a discussion with Timoney on why check fraud is rising, even as check usage declines.

The U.S. enacted new tariffs during both of President Donald Trump's terms in office, but the execution and impact of the 2018 and 2025 tariff policies were very different.

Research shows many more companies were impacted by the 2025 tariffs. The average tariff rate was also higher, tariffs were applied much more broadly, and productivity increased in ways that didn’t happen in 2018.

The Supreme Court invalidated many of the most recent tariffs in a 2026 ruling. That made the future of Trump’s tariff policy murkier, but there’s plenty to learn from what’s already happened. 

Download the paper authored by Boston Fed economists Omar Barbiero, Viacheslav Sheremirov, Alvaro Silva, and Hillary Stein at the Boston Fed’s 69th Economic Conference, “The U.S. Economy in a Changing Global Landscape.”

When countries practice geoeconomics, they use their economic might to win concessions from other nations. Geoeconomics can include tools like industrial policy, tariffs, and embargoes. 

But some say these economic coercion tactics could reduce trust and cooperation among nations – and have critical impacts on global trade.

Watch the panel discussion with economists Douglas Irwin, Karen Dynan, and Caroline Freund and download the paper given by professor Jeffry Frieden at the Boston Fed’s 69th Economic Conference, “The U.S. Economy in a Changing Global Landscape.”

Global trade is the world economy’s “hidden wiring:” Instead of trading finished goods, countries exchange product components and services, linking nations across the world through spread-out supply chain models. But this also means far-away economic shocks can now have a much greater impact on U.S. prices, jobs, and investment decisions.

Risks like extreme weather events, geopolitical flare-ups, and cybersecurity threats are shaking up the international economic landscape – and could lead to greater isolation. What might that mean for the future of global trade?

Download the papers authored and presentations given by economists Pol Antras, Şebnem Kalemli-Özcan, and Tommaso Monacelli at the Boston Fed’s 69th Economic Conference, “The U.S. Economy in a Changing Global Landscape.”

Money moves through the U.S. payments system every second of the day. One key part of that system is the FedNow® Service, the Federal Reserve’s instant payment rail. Launched in 2023, it enables financial institutions to move funds instantly – 24/7, 365 days a year. While FedNow is focused on domestic payments, the Fed is also exploring how it could eventually help make cross-border payments faster and simpler. 

In this Six Hundred Atlantic episode, Executive Vice President and Chief FedNow Executive Nick Stanescu discusses why FedNow was created, how it works, and what it could mean for businesses, consumers, and the future of financial access.  

“Is college worth it?” Boston Fed research indicates the answer is yes. It shows a correlation between higher salaries and higher educational attainment in New England over the last 40 years. Also, people with more education have higher starting wages and steeper salary raises throughout their careers.

But there’s nuance.

Pinghui Wu is a senior economist who co-wrote the recent research. She discusses why New England has higher educational attainment than most regions, and how that affects incomes. She also talks about the “college premium” – the fact that workers with college degrees earn more than those with high school degrees. And she explains how that premium grows or shrinks based on factors like gender, what people study, and the availability of work in a skilled trade.

The paper Pinghui Wu co-authored is “Educational Attainment and Wage Growth in New England: Evidence From Four Decades of Administrative Wage Records.”

A related working paper is “Educational Attainment and the Evolution of Cumulative Earnings across 45 US Birth Cohorts.”

For more interviews and analysis of the economy in New England and nationwide, visit BostonFed.org/SixHundredAtlantic.aspx. Subscribe to our email list to stay updated on new episodes.

Instant payments often aren’t “instant” at all, due to lags between when money is sent and received. These lags can be costly for people who need the money immediately to pay bills on time.

Some end up paying late or overdraft fees. Others are forced to turn to expensive alternative financial services, like payday loans.

Brian Clarke is a payments analyst and deputy director in the Regional & Community Outreach department at the Boston Fed. He spoke with us about the emergence of truly “real-time” instant payments, when money is sent and received in seconds. He says this speedy payment processing can really help small businesses and lower-income households avoid fees and costly services.

The FedNow Service is the Federal Reserve’s real-time instant payments infrastructure. Learn more about it at https://explore.fednow.org/about. For more interviews and analysis of the economy in New England and nationwide, visit BostonFed.org/SixHundredAtlantic.aspx. Subscribe to our email list to stay updated on new episodes.