money

The Trump administration is halting billions in payments to health insurance companies after a federal court in New Mexico ruled that the federal government was using an inaccurate formula for allocating payments from the risk adjustment program of Obamacare that takes funds from plans with lower-risk healthy enrollees and gives it to plans that cover people who need more care and are expected to have high medical costs.  [...]

Haiti: Riots erupted after the government attempted to raise fuel prices. At least three people are dead. Protesters tried to set a hotel on fire that had 120 American guests. Multiple Christian youth groups from the US are stranded, while dozens more remained marooned at the airport, unable to return to their hotels or other accommodations due to the blockage of streets and lack of transportation. [...]

The Internal Revenue Service says it is enforcing a law allowing authorities to revoke and deny passports to those owing over $51,000 in unpaid taxes.  Some 362,000 people may fall under the scope of the 2015 law, known as the Fixing America's Surface Transportation (FAST) Act, as early as the end of this year.  [...]

The new laws force tech companies to scan though everything their users post and check whether it contains copyrighted material, and if it does have copyrighted material, it must be removed. A "link tax" would force tech companies like Google and Facebook to pay to use snippets of content on their sites. [...]

Tourism is San Francisco’s biggest industry, bringing in $9 billion a year, employing 80,000 people and generating more than $725 million in local taxes.  A major convention canceled future plans due to the open drug use, threatening behavior, and mental illness that are common on the streets. [...]

President Trump is following through on his threat to implement tariffs on $50 billion in Chinese imports, and China has vowed to retaliate. The tariffs are in response to an investigation that accused China of stealing US intellectual property in order to dominate the development of advanced technology. The US imported $505 billion of goods from China last year and exported about $130 billion, leaving a 2017 deficit of $376 billion. [...]

Amazon, Starbucks and other large employers were able to pressure Seattle's City Council into overturning the socialist "head tax" of $275 on each employee per year that was expected to raise $50 million per year. The money was to help the growing homeless population. Amazon has more than 45,000 employees, and the tax would have cost the company $12,375,000. [...]

President Trump gave a press conference to announce a signed agreement with Kim Jong Un that requires the complete denuclearization of North Korea, with sanctions remaining in place until Kim meets his commitment. Trump said also that U.S. war games will end and that his ultimate goal is to bring the 32,000 troops stationed in the area back home. [The agreement that was revealed to the public is a statement of intent. Details now must be worked out.

President Trump is imposing a new 25% tariff on steel and a 10% tariff on aluminum imported from from Mexico, Canada, and the European Union. Mexico indicated it will retaliate against US agriculture products, Canada announced a new set of $16 billion in tariffs against US goods, and the EU will target bourbon and motorcycles made in the US. It is believed that China will be next on the list. [...]

The US Congressional Budget Office estimates that it will spend $700-billion on subsidies this year to help pay the health-care premiums for Americans under the age of 65. The extravagant benefits of the government's so-called 'affordable health care' has forced insurers to raise premiums by 34% in 2018. [...]