This is bad news for office workers, recent grads, and the long-term strength of the US dollar, and good news for skilled tradespeople and countries trying to ditch the dollar.

• Big companies like Amazon, Google, and Samsung are forcing staff back to the office five days a week, and many workers are quietly quitting or job-hunting in protest.
• "Coffee badging" (showing your face then going home) is widespread, but firms are cracking down with attendance tracking and threats of firing.
• Millennials are the most burned-out generation, drowning in student debt, locked out of home ownership, and earning less than boomers did at the same age.
• AI is wiping out entry-level white-collar jobs in tech, law, finance, and customer service — Harvard MBAs are unemployed, internships are vanishing, and trades like plumbing and electrical work now look safer than coding.
• The US dollar's global power rests on a 1974 deal where Saudi Arabia agreed to sell oil only in dollars, and that arrangement is now starting to break down as other countries move away from it.

Outlook: Expect more hybrid work, more layoffs blamed on AI, and growing pressure on the dollar as oil-producing countries quietly drift toward other currencies.