Trevor Jones

By: Trevor Jones An often overlooked facet of global economics is the functionality of island economies. I began exploring this in the wake of the Tonga volcano eruption in January 2022, when a massive eruption caused rampant flooding in the Pacific island nation. The publicity of this disaster led me to consider how the economies of Pacific islands work, given how they have seemingly little area or natural resources to build their wealth off of. With this article I aim to explore the broad components of island economies and compare them to our economy here in the United States. Primarily,…

By: Trevor Jones A phenomenon known as the “Santa Claus Rally” is thought to generally bring each year to a close on a bullish note in stock markets, due to optimism around the Christmas and holiday season. In fact, over the last 70 years, the last five trading days of December and the first two of the new year have seen a positive return on the S&P 500 79% of the time. While this has not been as pronounced over the last decade, the principle of holiday optimism still holds true. This year, the year-end rally has been much more…

By: Trevor Jones Heroin users at Platzspitz Park, June 1990 Drug use, especially the opioid crisis, is one of the most prominent public health issues in the United States today. According to drugabuse.gov, a government-run site detailing the data about drug abuse in the United States, over 47,000 people die every year due to opioid overdose. The same webpage also states that 1,700,000 American citizens suffer from prescription opioid-related substance abuse disorders, as well as 652,000 with a heroin use disorder. While there is potential for these latter two statistics to overlap, the magnitude of these numbers is still alarming.…