What you need to know:
- AI increases profits but reduces consumer demand, creating a feedback loop of layoffs and weaker spending.
- Labor displacement creates “ghost GDP” and housing market risk, with $13 trillion in mortgages vulnerable to 10.2% unemployment.
- AI agents can shift payments to stablecoins on low-cost blockchains like Solana and Ethereum, bypassing traditional card networks.
The latest story from Prepared as a June 2028 macro memo, Citrini Research examines the ways in which AI could change corporate profitability, labor markets, and payment infrastructure.
Although it is a work of fiction, so has the story widely shared X and serves as a good frame of reference for executives to think about how technological, economic and digital asset systems can be radically changed.
AI-driven productivity and market response
The economics in Citrini’s 2028 vision see AI deliver on its productivity promise, allowing companies to reduce workforces while increasing profits. Stock markets initially advance, with the S&P 500 “flirting at 8,000” and the Nasdaq “surging above 30,000,” as investors anticipate efficiency.
Nevertheless, the trend is reversing as layoffs result in a drop in consumer spending, and companies respond by introducing even more AI devices to safeguard their profit margins.
Also read: Ethereum’s Vitalik Buterin Outlines a Next-Generation Strategy to Protect Decentralized Power
Labor relocation
Within this story, the richest 10% of earners account for more than half of consumer spending; Meanwhile, roles like product managers and analysts, which previously spent $180,000 annually, are being replaced by software.
The productivity indicators are very high; however, service sectors such as restaurants and markets are shrinking. Housing is becoming a major point of contention, as approximately $13 trillion in mortgage contracts are based on the assumption of steady employment. As the unemployment rate rises to 10.2%, mortgage defaults will increase and stock markets could fall 40-60% from their highs.
Also read: Uniswap launches AI skills upgrade, enabling autonomous trading in DeFi
Stablecoin settlement
The memo implies that these agents, indifferent to brand loyalty, will focus on latency and fees, and therefore will drive transactions away from traditional card networks and their 23% interchange fees.
Rather, they can choose to make payment settlements in stablecoins on fast blockchains such as Solana and Ethereum.
Analysts note that the concentration of wealth could become even more unequal, with asset owners receiving an outsized share while labor’s share declines, a situation some analysts associate with the surge in interest in Bitcoin.
Also read: Nvidia nears $30 billion OpenAI investment, replacing $100 billion commitment
#Fictional #memo #proposes #mass #layoffs #adoption #stablecoins