Identifying Opportunities in Economic & Regulatory Trends

Identifying Opportunities in Economic & Regulatory Trends

1.    Economic: Food Stamps are being made harder to get.

A)   https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/13/us/food-stamps-work-west-virginia.html

B)   In West Virginia, there are more defined work requirements to acquire food stamps. It has not only induced stress for poorer people but did not increase the employment rate either.

C)   The people who would be the prototypical customer would be the poorer people who have lost their opportunity to receive food stamps. In the article, it states that there will be around 700,000 people who will lose their food stamps.

D)   I think that this opportunity would be on the difficult to exploit as it was a state-wide policy change. There are also federal laws in place that has a time limit on how long you can receive the food stamps. The opportunity has many opinions surrounding it and would be difficult to come to a solution.

E)    I don’t believe that there was anything that I’ve experienced that helped me find this opportunity. I think that this situation is interesting and emotionally attracting. Reading stories like this is an eye opener to the problems outside your area, as you see the conflicts others are struggling with.

2.     Economic: China trade deficit hurts U.S. jobs.

A)   https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states/articles/2020-01-30/us-loses-37-million-jobs-due-to-growing-china-trade-deficit-report-finds

B)   Since America’s worsening trade deficit with China has occurred, there have been a major loss of around four million jobs especially focused in California and Texas. I think there is an opportunity to create a system to redistribute the jobs in these struggling states.

C)   The people that would be the prototypical customer would be the U.S. citizens that have lost their jobs due to the trade deficit.

D)   I think that this opportunity would be easier to exploit as the economy is always changing, and so is the trade system. Since the economy is fluctuating, there may be more job opportunities, but we are unable to predict them.

E)    I picked this opportunity as it is something that affects my country. I have not personally known anyone that has suffered a job loss due to the trade deficit but have heard stories about others losing their jobs and struggling. It is an important factor in measuring the life quality of the country and I think it would be worth looking into.

3.     Regulatory: New federal regulations against the Corona virus affects cargo and cruise ship industries.

A)   https://www.dailybreeze.com/2020/02/04/new-federal-regulations-battling-spread-of-coronavirus-could-affect-cargo-cruise-ship-industries-at-ports-of-la-and-long-beach/

B)   Due to the spread of the Corona virus by transportation, there has been new federal travel regulations that heavily affect the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach. I think that there needs to be a way to allow the port operations to continue to run and find other way to stop the flow of the virus into the U.S.

C)   The people that would be the prototypical customers would be the cruise ship owners and cargo companies as well as the citizens of the U.S. who could be affected by these regulations.

D)   This opportunity would be difficult to exploit as there are many others ways the virus can spread and there is no real solution to keep the corona virus out of the U.S. Stopping the cargo and cruise ships seems to create more issues.

E)    This opportunity stuck me personally as the corona virus has spread into the U.S. and has had cases here at UF. Many people have been severely affected by the virus and I think that looking into this opportunity could help many citizens stay healthy.

4.     Regulatory: FDA regulation of electric nicotine delivery systems.

A)   https://www.fda.gov/tobacco-products/products-ingredients-components/vaporizers-e-cigarettes-and-other-electronic-nicotine-delivery-systems-ends

B)   This opportunity exists as on December 20, 2019 the President signed legislation to change the minimum age of sale of tobacco products from 18 to 21 years. It is for the safety and benefit of teenagers overusing these products.

C)   The prototypical customers would be the people aged 18 to 21 who used to buy these products. It also would involve the companies whose sales will lowered due to the rise in age.

D)   This opportunity would be easy to exploit as there is medical research done on the danger of using these tobacco and electric nicotine devices. There have been serious cases of teenagers passing from the overuse of these products. Federal legislation has stepped in to keep minors safe.

E)    I picked this opportunity as it is a problem that my generation faces today, especially college students. There are many teenagers that are getting addicted to these products and are accepting the damage they are doing to their bodies. It will be interesting to see if these devices ever get fully banned to start helping people aged 21 and up who are addicted as well.