Prof. Simon Johnson speaks with CNBC Squawk Box reporter Andrew Ross Sorkin about the state of private credit. “The opacity of this sector has become a problem,” says Johnson. “I think disclosure, at least to the authorities and publicly, would be healthy for everyone.”
A study by Prof. Taha Choukhmane and his colleagues has found that “by switching retirement contributions to the account with the higher match rate, 1 in 5 couples could increase their savings by an estimated $750 per year,” reports Lorie Konish for CNBC. “The absence of coordination can be a choice, but it’s a costly choice,” says Choukhmane.
Forbes reporter Jeff Kauflin spotlights Andres Santos MBA '21, co-founder of Común, as one of the six entrepreneurs making their debut on the Forbes Fintech 50 list. Común is a “digital bank for Hispanic immigrants,” writes Kauflin. “Customers can open checking accounts through an app using a passport or ID from their home country and use it for direct deposit, a debit card and international money transfers.”
Prof. Neha Narula speaks with Bloomberg reporters Scarlet Fu and Tim Stenovec about the financial, technological and regulatory risks associated with the rise in GENUIS-compliant stablecoins’ transition to mainstream use. “This is going to apply to more than just stablecoins,” says Narula. “This is going to apply to all tokenized assets. We have to think about the decentralized blockchains behind them. All blockchains are not created equal and right now there’s no indication for how users or stablecoin issuers or other market participants should think about these different blockchains.”
Prof. Andrew Lo speaks with Wall Street Journal reporter Peter Coy about why he feels current AI systems aren’t suited to serving as financial advisors and his goal to create “an AI financial adviser that is a true fiduciary—namely, an entity that always puts the client’s interests first and tailors its advice to their particular needs, including emotional needs.” Lo notes that: “The AI people are using now can be dangerous, especially if the user isn’t fully aware of the biases, inaccuracies and other limits” of large language models.
Prof. Christopher Palmer speaks with Marketplace reporter Carla Javier about the rise in auto loan delinquencies, noting that defaulting on a car payment is usually a borrower’s last resort, since people often need cars to get to work, so they’re more likely to not pay other bills first. “That could include not paying their mortgages or their rent, in part because it takes a long time to evict someone or to foreclose on a house,” Palmer explains.
Edward Woodford SM '15 founded Zerohash, a crypto and stablecoin infrastructure company, aimed at helping “financial institutions and fintechs build out their own products for stablecoins, crypto trading, and tokenization,” reports Ben Weiss for Fortune. “Over eight years, Woodford has managed to ride multiple crypto booms and busts,” writes Weiss. “It’s not just that we’re a survivor,” says Woodford. “We’ve actually thrived in that market, and actually now, I think we can accelerate that even further.”
Prof. Andrew Lo speaks with Wall Street Journal reporter Cheryl Winokur Munk about how AI tools could be used to help people with financial planning. Winokur Munk writes that Lo recommends providing “just enough information to get relevant answers. And leave out highly personal details like your name, address, salary, employer or specific assets…as such details put people at risk should the AI be compromised.” Lo also advises “trying several AI platforms,” writes Winokur Munk. And “the advice should be run by a professional, trusted family or friends. Be a bit skeptical and double-check with humans.”
Prof. Andrew Lo speaks with NBC Boston reporter Daniela Gonzalez about how AI tools could be used as a starting point to help people manage their monthly expenses and improve their savings strategies. Lo notes that AI tools “can tell you, given the kind of things you're looking to purchase, where the various deals might be.” He added that “once you get the feedback, you have to make sure that what you're getting is legit, versus what they call hallucinations that large language models are likely to do on occasion.”
Writing for Financial Times, Prof. Kristin Forbes explains how to approach to tariff trade-offs. “If even a fraction of the tariffs that have recently been announced are implemented, inflation will pick up and domestic activity will slow — at least over the next year or so,” explains Forbes. “The Fed will need to trade off mitigating the impact of another round of inflation with supporting employment.”
Prof. Andrew Lo speaks with Bloomberg reporter Lu Wang about how AI tools could be applied to the financial services industry, working alongside humans to help manage money, balance risk, tailor strategies and possibly even act in a client’s best interest. “I believe that within the next five years we’re going to see a revolution in how humans interact with AI,” says Lo. He adds that “the financial services industry has extra layers of protection that needs to be built before these tools can be useful.”
Prof. Haoxiang Zhu speaks with Bloomberg reporters Jayna Rohslau and Katherine Doherty about a proposal by U.S. regulators "to rework the pattern day trading rule.” “Today, trading is often commission-free, although not in all securities, and there’s less concern about excessive commission cost,” explains Zhu. “For this reason, I think a moderate reduction in the minimum margin for pattern day trading is fine, in particular if the reduction applies to securities for which trading is now commission-free.”
Neha Narula, director of the MIT Digital Currency Initiative, joins Taylor Wilson of USA Today’s The Excerpt podcast to discuss the future of cash as the use of digital currencies expands. On her vision for the future of money, Narula says, “We’ve had a lot of promise, we’ve had a lot of exciting ideas, but now it’s time to really buckle down and really build products that help users and help make their lives better.”
Writing for The Wall Street Journal, Sloan Senior Lecturer Robert Pozen highlights the impact of U.S. tariffs on foreign investment in U.S. Treasury securities and U.S. corporate bonds. “Nevertheless, since target countries will want to respond to reciprocal tariffs, they may stop buying or even sell U.S. debt securities,” explains Pozen. “Either response would increase U.S. interest rates and decrease economic growth. International trade flows and international investing are two sides of the same street.”
Prof. Sarah Williams speaks with Newsweek reporter Micah McCartney about how China’s construction boom lead to largely uninhabited developments dubbed “ghost cities”. Williams explains: “They needed a return on their investment, so they opened up new land and new loans for overleveraged real estate developers, so those developers could use these loans to pay back previous loans. The easy way to describe it is that it is a bit of a Ponzi scheme."