Racial disparities in the U.S. have persisted for decades – in wealth, in education, in crime, in neighborhoods. Their impacts are profound, their causes hotly debated. This season, we seek insight in research, data, and a mix of perspectives.

Susan M. Collins talks about taking over as president and CEO of the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston during a busy time for the Bank and an important and challenging time for the Federal Reserve.

The Boston Fed’s Prabal Chakrabarti is helping direct a new 3-year research effort into racial wealth disparities in Massachusetts. He discusses the project’s ambitious aims and how it expands on the Bank’s impactful “The Color of Wealth” report. 

The focus across the Federal Reserve System is curbing inflation, which just hit a 40-year high. Evidence of inflation’s effects on consumers is everywhere – in the media, in stores, at gas stations, and beyond. That’s made Americans increasingly aware of rising inflation, and according to a new study published by the Boston Fed, that can make it more difficult to rein it in.

Boston Fed Senior economist Jenny Tang is co-author of the paper called “Inflation Levels and (In)attention,” which looks at the ways inflation can be affected by how much attention people pay to it.

In the latest episode of Six Hundred Atlantic, Tang speaks about how different levels of attention can influence everything from what kind of mortgage a person chooses to whether they think it’s a good time to go appliance shopping.

Season 2 of Six Hundred Atlantic looked at a broken child care sector, including hopes the pandemic would trigger reform by highlighting child care’s problems and importance. In a bonus episode, experts Beth Mattingly and Tom Weber discuss the evolving crisis.

Something is different these days in the push for child care reform. There’s momentum. Some say right now is the best window for reform in decades. But others are skeptical, citing its massive costs and a spending-weary public.

The American ideal once saw women at home, while men went to work. But cultural expectations have changed, and for many women that’s not possible or desirable. Still, women say the child care system hasn’t adjusted, and they bear the brunt of its problems.

Steep child care costs matter, and not just to the parents who pay them. Those fees are also the sector’s main source of revenue. Advocates see this as one of the system’s major flaws, and they say parents, providers, and workers all suffer for it.

Polls indicate strong support for investing in a better child care system. Actual legislative results tell another story. Does history offer clues about why comprehensive reform has been so elusive, even though – on the surface – the idea is popular?

Child care follows a familiar storyline in the U.S.: Crisis comes, people act. Then momentum fades, and the system limps ahead. What’s preventing lasting reform? Advocates say many underestimate the sector’s broad impacts on the economy and the future.