Crypto: Fictional 2028 AI Memo Imagines Mass Layoffs And Stablecoin Adoption
Citrini Research’s 2028 scenario imagines AI turbocharging corporate profits, while hollowing out consumer demand and quietly migrating global payments to stablecoins on cheap chains.
Thematic equity and global macro analysis company Citrini Research has published a new post imagining the world of 2028 that sketches an economy transformed by artificial intelligence.
In Citrini’s version of near-future history, AI finally delivers on its productivity promise, as companies cut staff, profits surge and stocks roar. The post is framed as a macro memo from June 2028 and has been shared widely on X.
In Citrini’s scenario, equity markets initially celebrate the efficiency shock. The S&P 500 “flirted with 8000,” and the Nasdaq “broke above 30k,” as investors celebrated a new era of productivity.
But the mood shifts as laid-off workers stop spending, consumer demand collapses, and companies turn to more AI tools to defend profits. That triggers more layoffs and even weaker demand, becoming a self-reinforcing loop that squeezes the economy’s human core.
In the future fictional US economy, the top 10% of earners drive more than half of all consumer spending. Product managers and analysts, once making $180,000 a year, are replaced by software.
Citrini calls the result “ghost GDP.” Output surges on paper while wages crumble in reality. Productivity data looks dazzling, yet restaurants and retail chains quietly wither in an economy that grows without paying anyone.
Related: Vitalik Buterin proposes using AI to strengthen DAO governance
The breaking point comes in housing, where roughly $13 trillion in mortgages hinge on the assumption of steady employment.
In 2008, the authors point out, loans were “bad on day one.” In 2028, they were perfectly fine until the world changed, joblessness spiked at 10.2%, and the S&P shed 40% to 60% from its peak. But markets barely flinch, as machine-driven liquidity masks human distress.
Source: CoinTelegraph
