Quick Overview

• A surge in radioactive contamination reportedly was detected Saturday in seawater near Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant.
• Nuclear experts from Greenpeace have started monitoring radiation near the stricken Fukushima No. 1 atomic power plant. Greenpeace said it believed Japanese authorities may have been underplaying the scale of the disaster.
• Germans throughout Berlin, Hamburg, Munich, and Cologne participated in what are thought to be the country's largest-ever protests against nuclear power
• The first signs of radioactive materials from the quake-hit Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant in Japan was found in northeast China's Heilongjiang Province on Thursday, China's nuclear authorities said on Saturday.
•  RADIOACTIVE IODINE RELEASES FROM JAPAN’S FUKUSHIMA DAIICHI REACTORS MAY EXCEED THOSE OF THREE MILE ISLAND BY OVER 100,000 TIMES  Vermont Yankee, for example, contains more spent fuel in its pool than all four stricken pools at the Fukushima Daiichi plant. Yet the Nuclear Regulatory Commission has not ordered any additional actions to protect this material.
  

• The Department of Commerce revised its Q4 2010 estimate of GDP upward to 3.1%, up from its previous estimate of 2.8%. (You may want to get the antacids ready for the year ahead)

• The U.S consumer-sentiment index fell to 67.5 in March

• The USDA's confirmation of a large corn sale of 49 million bushels to unknown, China?

• (Bloomberg) “The economy is looking pretty good,” Bullard told reporters in Marseille, France, today. “It is still reasonable to review QE2 in the coming meetings, especially this April meeting, and see if we want to decide to finish the program or to stop a little bit short.”
• Charles Plosser: The Fed should hike interest rates from the current range near zero to 2.5% within a year.

• The White House said Obama is committed to corporate tax reform, after the New York Times reported that GE owed no U.S. taxes in 2010.
• GE's tax filing is apparently 24,000 pages long........................................................................