6A-Identifying Opportunities in Economic and Regulatory Trends

Economic Trend #1: "Growing Income Inequality"
a. https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2017/09/global-competitiveness-report-2017-trends/
b. An opportunity exists here because people are facing inequality in incomes in the United States. Therefore, there are people that are suffering and have unmet needs in terms of finding jobs and the wages they make. 
c. The most likely group of people affected by this is the middle class in which the 4th Industrial Revolution is taking away many of their jobs. 
d. I believe that this opportunity is relatively difficult to exploit because of the advancement of technological changes which do not seem to slow down. These changes are changing the job mix in the United States in which the middle class has its jobs taken away. 
-I saw this as an opportunity because I am part of the middle class and my father almost lost his job due to a situation similar to this. 

Economic Trend #2: "Hurricane-Torn Puerto Rico Says It Can’t Pay Any of Its Debts for 5 Years"
a. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/24/us/puerto-rico-budget-hurricanes.html?rref=collection%2Ftimestopic%2FEconomic%20Conditions%20and%20Trends&action=click&contentCollection=timestopics&region=stream&module=stream_unit&version=latest&contentPlacement=7&pgtype=collection 
b. An opportunity exists here because Puerto Rico has suffered from the hurricane and the fact that it cannot pay any debts definitely strikes them as well as other countries that are related. 
c. There are two sets of people affected by this opportunity. First, Puerto Rico and its residents are affected because the debt of Puerto Rico is just going to increase due to the fact that relief efforts are where most of the money is going to. Secondly, the countries in which Puerto Rico owes debt to are affected because the have the unmet need of getting repaid by Puerto Rico. 
d. This situation is difficult to exploit because a hurricane causes so much damage and so many efforts need to be made to fix up the damages. Therefore it is extremely hard for Puerto Rico to do that and also pay its debts at the same time. 
- I saw this as an opportunity because many places have natural disasters that end up harming the economy and cause many unmet needs for them and for others. 

Regulatory Trend #1: "Cyber-security"
a. http://media.paychex.com/paychex-identifies-the-top-10-regulatory-issues-for-small-businesses-in-2017/
b. An opportunity exists here because there is a need of better cyber-security due to the fact of increasing levels of fraud, data breaches, hacking, and email leaks that harm many businesses. 
c. Businesses and their customers are affected by this opportunity because without great cyber-security, businesses can lose many assets that in return can be detrimental to the customers that are related to that business. 
d. I believe that this situation can be easy to exploit if the businesses take on better regulations to protect their information. 
-I saw this as an opportunity because I have a family friend that lost a lot of money due to the fact that he did not have good cyber-security regulations. 

Regulatory Trend #1: "Payments"
a. http://media.paychex.com/paychex-identifies-the-top-10-regulatory-issues-for-small-businesses-in-2017/
b. An opportunity exists here because customers of many small businesses have an unmet need of safe transactions and payments due to the fact that the businesses have not implemented EMV technology.
c. The small businesses are affected because they are held liable for fraudulent charges made by customers. Customers are also affected because their payments and accounts are put in jeopardy due to the fact that these businesses have unsafe transactions.  
d. I believe that this situation is easy to exploit if the businesses can afford to establish EMV technology. 
- I saw this as an opportunity because hacking and cyber fraud are becoming more and more prevalent due to the fact of technological advancements.