presidential election

By Nicholas Colas of Convergex

E Pluribus Google (Trends)

After doing virtually nothing to help underwater homeowners for 8 years, Obama acted to slightly reduce mortgage insurance payments.

But there’s a catch …

Obama made sure the program to reduce mortgage insurance wouldn’t start to happen until after Trump became president:

The White House has backtracked on a report it is rolling back sanctions on Russia's Federal Security Service, the successor agency to the KGB,  after the Treasury Department announced an amendment to put measures in place by former President Obama in response to Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.

The FSB was one of several entities sanctioned by Obama in December related to Russian hacking of Democratic political organizations and operatives. The FSB must also approve certain technology imports to Russia per domestic law.

As the political scandal gripping (former) French presidential frontrunner Francois Fillon grows, his public support is tumbling and according to a new opinion poll released on Wednesday, the conservative presidential candidate would no longer even make the second round of this spring's presidential election in France, raising the pressure on him as a scandal over his wife and children's publicly funded "fae work" engulfed his campaign.