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The U.S. Fed's plans for reinvestment of $216 billion in Treasuries that will mature in 2016. The numbers are smaller in 2014 and 2015. The Fed's William Dudley, president of the Federal Reserve of New York, supports continued reinvestment. He says ending reinvestments risks inadvertently tightening credit and financial conditions, inconsistent with the Fed's intentions. Reinvesting would provide stimulus, even as the Fed gradually reduces its bond buying program, by keeping borrowing costs low.

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Larsen says the EFSF should get the funding it needs to recapitalize troubled European banks, as the first step to solving the eurozone financial crisis. Banks in Spain and Italy that failed stress tests would get funds to build up their capital. Creditor haircuts should be part of the effort to reduce the debt burden of troubled eurozone countries.

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Bayer CEO, Marijn Dekkers, plans to divest its plastics business, called Material Science. The plastics division requires large investments with lower returns than can be made in health care or the agricultural crop science business. Crop Science generated earnings before interest and taxes of 1.81 billion euros in 2014, and Health Care helped by 5 new prescription drugs reported EBIT of 3.58 billion euros, compared to poor returns of 555 million euros on the polyurethane and polymers used for laptops to soccer balls in the Materials Science division. CEO Dekkers is a Dutch born executive who worked for 25 years in the U.S. Since taking over in 2010 he has brought a significant culture change to Bayer, by insisting on speed and agility from executives. Division heads with marketing backgrounds are preferred to science degrees, and the planning orientation of the company is being changed to one where the company executives are not afraid to take risks based on incomplete information. Dekkers prefers an IPO for the $10 billion plastics business to generate more cash and reduce the debt of 20 billion euros. He acquired the over the counter drug business of Merck for $14.2 billion, and has boosted drug sales with the introduction of Xarelto in partnership with J&J, eye treatment Eylea, cancer drugs Stivarga and Xofigo, pulmonary hypertension drug Adempas. Sales of these 5 drugs are expected to go up from 2.9 billion euros in 2014 to 4 billion euros in 2015, contributing significantly to Bayer's profits. Dekker's venture capitalist type focus on profit margins is showing results in share price performance- Bayer's share price has advanced 60% in 2015 mid-March price of 145.85 euros compared to the prior year month. In the small town of Leverkusen, Germany, where Bayer is located, there were initially fears that Dekkers was "too American" and too focussed on shareholder value to understand the need to respect tradition. Since then Germans have realized that Dekkers understands tradition and is only bringing necessary change- the transition to being a life sciences company makes sense to shareholders in Germany, for employee representatives on the supervisory board the guarantee of current level of 17,000 jobs in the plastics division for a few years shows his concern for job protection during the transition period. For Dekkers who left Holland in 1985, and has a U.S. passport with an American wife and kids who speak no Dutch or German, the important thing is to get the right balance- he says the system of 99-1 where 99% of the information had to be in before a decision could be made is making the change to 90-10 where only 90% of the information is now necessary to go ahead, even if he would like to see it at 80-20. Bayer still sponsors the local soccer team known as Bayer Leverkausen, and 26 other clubs. Dekkers steps down at the end of 2016....

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Peggy Noonan in the WSJ comments on U.S. president Trump's effort to work in a bipartisan way with Democrats on government spending, raising the debt ceiling, and hurricane aid. Noonan says this may not last, because president Trump lacks steadiness or the understanding and depth needed to make it work. A major problem is the eight months of policy wavering moving in different directions, and endless tweets showing a lack of depth, that have alienated many. This has hardened opinion in some ways says Noonan, and is a hurdle to making things work in a bipartisan spirit. Not much is predictable in the Trump administration as lack of steadiness is a singular feature.  Other problems for this bipartisanship to work is that it could alienate the right wing of the Republican party and the Freedom Caucus, as well as the growing left wing of the Democratic party.  In this zany atmosphere things could soon be back where they were. 

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Former Senator Jim DeMint lays out his reasoning for the Republican fight to defund ObamaCare, as the healthcare legislation is now called by Republicans. He points to problems with the legislation with issues about how much the added entitlements will cost in the future( more than the $250 billion by 2023 estimate of CBO insists DeMint based on the general lowballing of projections), and higher premiums for the young and elderly on exchanges. He says the 2012 elections were fought on economic issues not ObamaCare, and that the public he has met in visits to different states as president of the Heritage Foundation continues to be skeptical about ObamaCare. He sees the correct role of the Opposition party to point out the deficiencies in the law and call for corrections in the path for healthcare.

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David Beers, John Chambers and the Committee that made the U.S. credit ratings downgrade. Earlier calls on Iceland, Argentina and Italy by David Beers and his willingness to make a tough call and defend it. The committee is called the sovereign ratings division, with David Beers as head, and John Chambers as his deputy. A report from the IMF gives good marks to S&P on making timely sovereign ratings revisions where approporate and on being ahead of Moody's and Fitch in this regard. S&P spokesperson says that the sovereign ratings group is quite different from the corporate ratings group.