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Final results from France’s presidential election show Francois Hollande narrowly defeated incumbent Nicolas Sarkozy with 51.62 percent of the vote.

Interior Ministry figures released Monday morning show the outgoing Sarkozy garnered 48.38 percent of the vote, giving Hollande a winning margin of 1.13 million votes.

Voter turnout was 80.34 percent, about the same as in the first round of voting April 22.

Hollande is pledging to buck Europe’s austerity trend and NATO’s timetable for Afghanistan no teletrack payday loan.

His allies are now jockeying for government jobs. Sarkozy’s conservative party is turning its sights to upcoming parliamentary elections to try to hold onto its majority despite a wave of support for the left.

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Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke says further bond purchases by the Fed remain “very much on the table” if the economy needs further support.

Bernanke says the central bank remains prepared to take additional actions, referring to a possible third round of bond buying. Two now-expired programs of Fed bond purchases have been intended to push down long-term interest rates to encourage borrowing and spending.

Bernanke is speaking at a news conference after a two-day policy meeting.

He says the central bank believes that while inflation has risen lately, it will remain within the Fed’s 2 percent target.

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Anheuser-Busch continues to roll out new barrels in this spring full of new product launches.

Next up? Bud Light Lime-A-Rita, the brewery’s take on that classic cocktail. It “blends the flavor of an authentic margarita with a refreshing splash of Bud Light Lime,” says A-B, and at 8 percent alcohol by volume, it’s got a little kick to it.

Like Michelob Ultra Light Cider, Lime-A-Rita’s another bid by A-B to capture the sweeter palates of today’s younger, more spirits-oriented drinkers Payday Loan for Bad Credit. Like Bud Light Platinum, it’s also leveraging the name of a strong existing brand.

It’ll hit stores this week. In 8 oz. and 24 oz. cans and 12 ounce bottles. If you’re curious, A-B recommends it straight from the can, or over ice.

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The U.S. unemployment rate might now be below 8 percent had Congress adopted all of President Barack Obama

Greece will probably have to restructure its debt again and this may involve bailout partners such as the International Monetary Fund, said Moritz Kraemer, head of sovereign ratings at Standard & Poor

A New Jersey company that manages prescription benefits has agreed to pay $2.7 million to settle an investigation into influence-peddling at California’s largest public pension fund, officials announced Friday.

The California attorney general’s office said Medco Health Solutions Inc. also has agreed to change its internal procedures.

The California Public Employees’ Retirement System did not renew a contract with Medco last year after an investigation revealed the company paid more than $4 million to Alfred Villalobos to help secure a prescription drug contract.

Villalobos is a former CalPERS board member who acted as a middleman to help companies gain contracts with the pension fund. The state attorney general has charged him with setting up a system of kickbacks to gain influence with pension fund executives.

California officials sued Villalobos in 2010, and the case is expected to head to trial later this year in Los Angeles. At the same time, federal authorities continue criminal and civil investigations.

Medco spokeswoman Ann Smith said the company is pleased the state investigation affirmed “no wrongdoing of any kind.” She said the review determined no employees violated any rules or Medco’s code of conduct no fax payday loan.

“Our retainer agreement bound Mr. Villalobos to follow all applicable laws and regulations to the work on our behalf,” Smith said.

CalPERS CEO Anne Stausboll said in a statement she was pleased with the settlement, a portion of which will be shared with CalPERS.

Medco provided mail-order prescription drug benefits for approximately 300,000 CalPERS members who were enrolled in the pension fund’s health plans between July 2006 and December 2011. CVS Caremark Corp. is now administering the benefits.

According to the state’s complaint against Medco, the health care company failed to ensure that Villalobos refrained from meeting with CalPERS board members and staff during the competitive bid process.

Under the settlement, Medco agreed it won’t “unlawfully interfere or tamper” with the competitive bidding process of any California governmental agency. It also agreed to a requirement that Medco’s directors review the case and take internal measures to prevent the same problem in the future.

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Hong Kong Chief Executive candidate Henry Tang pledged to boost government spending to tackle a widening wealth gap as he sought to reverse a slump in public support ahead of this month

In the not-so-distant past, a crusading third-party presidential candidate ran a grass-roots, national campaign on a platform of fiscal responsibility and balanced budgets.

That candidate’s name was Ross Perot, and in 1992 he captured 19% of the popular vote, and at one point even found himself atop the national horse-race polls.

Is America ready for another Perot?

David Walker thinks so.

A former comptroller general of the United States, Walker released a statement Monday saying that 20 years after Perot became a candidate, there are "striking comparisons between the state of the country in 1992 and today."

"I know there is a hunger for it," he told CNNMoney on Monday.

Walker — who has toured the country for years harping on a message of fiscal responsibility — believes it will happen.

"It’s clear there will be a third option," Walker said, citing the influence of Americans Elect, a new group that is raising money to put a third-party challenger on the ballot in all 50 states.

"If you look at the conditions and compare them to 20 years ago, we are demonstrably worse off, and the degree of public discontent is greater," Walker said.

And is Walker, who has been floated by New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman as a potential candidate, the right person to jump in the race?

Walker told CNNMoney on Monday that "there are people who are trying to draft me to run" and "they can do what they want."

"But I’m not a candidate at the present time and don’t expect to be a candidate," he said.

If he were to run, Walker would bring budget wonk credentials that can be matched by few. That’s because he was warning about exploding deficits and long-term debt problems way before it was cool.

"We suffer from a fiscal cancer," Walker told 60 Minutes in 2007. "It is growing within us, and if we don’t treat it, it could have catastrophic consequences for our country."

Since then, the national debt has ballooned to $15 trillion, and little has been done to curb the rising costs of health care and federal entitlement spending.

Walker said he wasn’t very impressed with President Obama’s latest budget proposal, calling it "inadequate." But he does give the president credit for drawing a distinction between short-term deficits and the long-run structural problems the country faces.

Still the president’s plan doesn’t go far enough. "We are still running deficits of $700 billion 10 years from now," Walker said.

At the same time, Walker said "Republicans haven’t developed [a credible plan] either."

America’s Choice 2012

Specifically, Republicans need to acknowledge that adding revenue to federal coffers is essential to bringing down the deficit. Walker said the country needs roughly $1 dollar in additional revenue for ever $3 in spending cuts.

The additional revenue should come as part of a plan that reforms the overly complicated tax code.

Walker gave few details on what he would do specifically to help bring down runaway deficits, but he did say that the hyper-partisan atmosphere on Capitol Hill was acting as an impediment to good legislation.

"I don’t advocate a specific reform proposal because in the end you have to consider good ideas from multiple sources," Walker said.

Policy aside, Walker does appear to be right about a hunger existing for a third-party candidate.

According a Washington Post-ABC News poll conducted last month, 46% of Americans said they would consider voting for an independent third-party candidate they agreed with on the issues.

An additional 22% said they would "definitely" vote for such a candidate.

That’s a lot of votes. And if Friedman has his way, some could be going to Walker — who already has something of a ready-made message:

"A lot of people are talking about the problems, but not a lot of people are talking about solutions," Walker said Monday. "I focus on three things: truth, leadership and solutions. And those are the three biggest deficits that we have." 

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Japan may exempt home purchases from any increase in its sales tax, or reduce the amount of increase, Finance Minister Jun Azumi said.

Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda aims to double the 5 percent sales tax by 2015 to boost revenue and contain a public debt burden twice the size of Japan

For the first time, Indian prosecutors are taking Google, Yahoo, Facebook and other networking sites to court for refusing to remove material considered insulting to Indian leaders and major religious figures.

Government officials are upset about material insulting to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, ruling Congress party leader Sonia Gandhi and major religious figures. Some illustrations have shown Singh and Gandhi in compromising positions and pigs running through Mecca, Islam’s holiest city.

On Friday, the federal government told a New Delhi court that there was sufficient material to proceed against 21 social networking sites for offenses of “promoting enmity between classes and causing prejudice to national integration,” according to the Press Trust of India news agency.

The cases, which PTI said name companies including Google, Facebook, Yahoo and Microsoft, represent a new risk of doing business in the nation of more than 1 billion people, which is looking to technology to boost its economy and standard of living. The dispute highlights India’s difficulty in balancing the Internet culture of freewheeling discourse with its homegrown religious and political sensitivities.

Convictions could bring fines and up to five years’ imprisonment, through prosecutors have named only the companies involved rather than any executives. Metropolitan Magistrate Sudesh Kumar on Friday asked India’s External Affairs Ministry to serve summons to officials of foreign-based companies for court appearances March 13 my credit score.

In December, Telecommunications Minister Kapil Sibal said he had spoken repeatedly with officials from major Internet companies over the past three months and asked them to come up with a voluntary framework to keep offensive material off the Internet. He said that the companies told him there was nothing they could do.

There was no immediate comment by the networking sites after Friday’s court proceedings.

However, Facebook said last month that it would remove content that “is hateful, threatening, incites violence or contains nudity.”

Google said in a December statement that it removes content that violates local law and its own standards.

“But when content is legal and doesn’t violate our policies, we won’t remove it just because it’s controversial, as we believe that people’s differing views, so long as they’re legal, should be respected and protected,” Google said in a statement in December.

Sibal had shown reporters Web illustrations showing Singh and Gandhi in compromising positions as well as a site showing pigs running through Islam’s holy city of Mecca, a clear insult to Muslims.

Sibal said the Internet companies had told him that they were applying U.S. standards to their sites, and he objected, saying that they needed to be sensitive to Indian sensibilities.

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