The repricing of labor markets through AI isn't following the expected pattern of technological displacement. Instead of replacing expensive human roles first, AI is systematically targeting the cognitive middle class—lawyers, analysts, consultants—while leaving both manual labor and true expertise intact. This creates a peculiar barbell economy where the value gap between genuine domain mastery and routine cognitive work becomes a chasm.

The implications cascade through asset pricing in ways most aren't tracking. When a significant portion of white-collar productivity becomes commoditized, the premium for scarce human judgment doesn't just increase linearly—it compounds. We're watching the emergence of a new economic stratification based not on education credentials or even intelligence, but on the ability to operate in genuine uncertainty rather than pattern recognition.

The Fed's models don't account for this kind of structural shift. They're still calibrating for traditional employment categories that are becoming meaningless in real-time.