6A – Identifying Opportunities in Economic & Regulatory Trends

ECONOMIC TRENDS

1. Cryptocurrency prices plunge as regulators clamp down.

Within the past 3 months, the surge of cryptocurrencies have taken over not just social media platforms but economic grounds as well. This article presents the increasing importance of cryptocurrency and the various economic branches that take part in this: from investment advisors to broke-dealers to trading platforms, etc. 

There is definitely an opportunity within being able to translate the cryptocurrencies that are now increasing in popularity around us. This can definitely open up more job opportunities for younger students (prototypical customers) or possible interested investors (the older crowd) into this new trend. As many countries in the world are now following a more universal "language", cryptocurrency is definitely one area that can continue to be expanded on and applied in various economic platforms. This industry may be difficult to exploit due to the barrier between those who understand investment platforms and those aren't exposed nor aware whatsoever in this field (people like me!). 

Source: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/cryptocurrency-prices-plunge-as-regulators-clamp-down/

2. Healthcare: Millions of Jobs Now and in the Future.

The healthcare industry has been in demand and continues to stay in demand due to the daily interaction needed with patients. This article presents a statistic that the healthcare industry is projected to become one of the most fastest growing industries in the U.S. economy. From hospitals to laboratories to primary care offices to residential care facilities, over 4 million jobs are expected to open between the 10 year span of 2012-2022. 

I think this opportunity exists due to the increase in interest in preventative healthcare demand and technology being an aid. Although our population growth isn't as inclined as previous decades, our life span has drastically increased thus calling for more attention to healthcare services in geriatrics and overall primary care. This industry not only calls for more technicians on hand but more experience from various employees to input into the healthcare industry leading towards more improvements in medicine. The prototypical customers would be people already in the healthcare field or students pursuing a career within this field. As a pre-med student, this article is very interesting to not just myself but my family and friends who will one day find themselves in [hopefully] improved healthcare services. 

Source: https://www.bls.gov/careeroutlook/2014/spring/art03.pdf

REGULATORY TRENDS

1. Flavored Tobacco including menthol cigarrettes would be banned in North Fair Oaks

Although the youth smoking population has been decreasing, the CDC still believes it is not enough and more work needs to be done to drastically lower the numbers. Although the usage of cigarette smoking has fallen in the youth, flavored cigarettes are found to be the "gateway" or replacement which still leads towards many health risks. The great risk falls in the flavoring where is covers the intense concentration of tobacco in the cigarette so you don't really "feel" the negative effects as you would with a cigarette. 

I think this opportunity exists with the current youth population we have today alongside the circulating social media platform that is able to make these negative trends go viral or become a "fad" even as we have seen with youth eating TidePods. The article mentioned how the targeted consumers are of minority who have an increase of usage compared to those who aren't. The prototypical customer would be from the youth to even tobacco users who have quit tobacco usage as well. I find this opportunity hard to exploit as many can agree of the negative effects of tobacco usage and how it can lead towards a progressive foot in the field of health disparities. 

Source: http://padailypost.com/2018/01/21/flavored-tobacco-including-menthol-cigarettes-would-be-banned-in-north-fair-oaks/

2. How Voters With Disabilities are Blocks from the Ballot Box

With the federal disabilities regulations, many polling stations do try to include citizens with disabilities in the voting process, however there has been a major decrease in voter participation in the last decade due to this issue. In Nebraska, with more than 70%, they are the state with the highest voter participating among citizens with disabilities in the U.S. Going over to the state of New York, only 48.8% of citizens with disabilities participate. Much of this tends to become with long waiting lines, lack of aid and lack of accessible voting machines. 

I believe this opportunity exists because voting participation makes a huge difference in the long run. From local to national voting ballots, the more participation can lead to a decrease in having politicians not wanted from being in office. As a person who has worked the ballots in 2016, I have seen the difference voting participation has made within my county and how it affected the final votes for the electoral college in the state of Florida. I think the prototypical customers are citizens with disabilities and possible engineers in creating more efficient voting machines as they do tend to break down easily or crash. This opportunity can be easily to exploit as there is already activism in more voting participation however I do have faith that there is room for improvement towards increasing voting participation in general. 

Source: https://www.ktoo.org/2018/02/01/voters-disabilities-blocked-ballot-box/