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How the AI Economy Is Reshaping Blue-Collar Wages
Description
The AI economy is rewriting the American Dream, and blue-collar workers may be the biggest winners. Lucas and Luna dig into new data showing a surge in wages for jobs like electricians, machinists, and warehouse technicians, even as white-collar coding roles face pressure. They connect the trend to the Fed's rate dilemma: with core CPI still sticky at 335.4 and the ten-year breakeven inflation rate at 2.40, the Fed is stuck at 3.64 while inflation expectations inch up. Lucas argues this wage bifurcation is a structural shift that keeps inflation stickier than models predict. Luna asks whether the AI boom is finally spreading beyond tech hubs into heartland factory towns. The episode ends with a forward-looking question about whether the Fed's data-dependent approach can account for this kind of structural change.