Looking For Opportunity

Economic Trends

1. Electric and hybrid cars are now more affordable: Driving around, I have noticed there are more fuel efficient and electric cars on the road than ever before. The idea of a purely electric car used to be that.. just an idea. However, Telsa Motors has created a car that is becoming affordable, and entirely economically friendly. According to https://transportevolved.com, electric car sales have doubled every year for the past three years. I predict this is due to the fact that people are becoming more and more environmentally conscious and due to the higher demand for the product in the industry, the price for it's components are decreasing. It seems people are becoming more and more aware and conscious of the dangers we can impose on the environment if nothing is done to protect it. The evidence is out there and we no longer walk around wondering what the impact of emissions can do to the planet. I think because people are more educated on the issue, they are dedicating more effort in conserving and preserving the environment (for the most part). The revolution of a car which emits zero emissions has shaken up the automobile industry, driving up competition between which car company can compete with this new and growing trend; which therefore is going to continue to drive down the price of the vehicles as more models come out.

2. Streaming music may not be hurting the music industry: http://fivethirtyeight.com/features/maybe-spotify-isnt-killing-the-music-industry-after-all/ There has been recent disputes about whether streaming a song on a platform such as Spotify is reducing the amount the artists and songwriters make off the song. Taylor Swift may be one reason so many people believe this because she made it very publically clear none of her music would be available to stream on Spotify. However, according to the Recording Industry Association of America, streaming revenue continues to grow. In 2010 revenues were at 0.5 billion - in 2014 $1.9 billion and now accounts for a quarter of the earnings in the music industry. A study conducted in the article states that while Spotify is not taking money away from the music industry, it has displaced physical and digital record sales. In that aspect Taylor Swift was correct. However, not by much and the decline of record sales was already in effect before Spotify blew up. Who is to say the decline would not have continued otherwise? The overall effect of Spotify on artists is more complicated. They still pay billions in royalties and has reduced piracy (a benefit for artists). Interning in the music industry, I was able to notice the lack of physical record sales. Then I started looking at the alternatives (like Spotify and Pandora) and understanding why. We are in a digital age, people would much rather stream music from their phone than put in the effort to go and buy a physical copy of a record. That especially holds true if there are only a couple songs one likes on an album. Streaming is extremely convenient for everyone and it definitely now holds a place in the industry artists must be conscious of.

3. Growing trends in identity theft: http://www.ovc.gov/pubs/ID_theft/growingtrends.html In 2016 alone, my parents have had their debit cards breached 3 times. Today my dad called me and informed me our bank called him to inform him someone was trying make  $350 purchase in California using his credit card information. Target and Home Depot recently had their credit card databases breached. The article stated that from 2005 to 2007, the number of households that experience credit card theft increased 31 percent. The opportunity arises here to create better security for credit cards. Some banks have created the chip built into their cards which is suppose to decrease the risk of theft. However, with the internet and major databases, this may be a difficult opportunity to exploit. The call from my dad today made me realize how often this has happened to us. I thought about how we cannot be the only ones. Other people may be experiencing identity theft even more frequently than us.

4. Distracted driving is a growing trend which is increasing fatalities and insurance costs: http://www.textinganddrivingsafety.com/texting-and-driving-stats distracted driving has become more prevalent since texting was created. According to this article, 23% of crashes involve a cell phone which is about 1.3 million crashes. The more crashes (regardless of the cause) the more insurance will cost. This will impact just about anyone with a car, but especially teens and young adult.