What We Read Today 23 March 2014

Econintersect: Every day our editors collect the most interesting things they find from around the internet and present a summary “reading list” which will include very brief summaries of why each item has gotten our attention. Suggestions from readers for “reading list” items are gratefully reviewed, although sometimes space limits the number included.

• Venice votes to split from Italy as 89% of the city’s residents opt to form a new independent (Hannah Roberts, Daily Mail) Hat tips to John O’Donnell and Lew Rockwell. The urge to unravel is spreading. Some of the ongoing activity: Scotland separation from England; Crimea from Ukraine (although as a Russian Federation republic); and Basque and Catalonia from Spain. With the perception that military might is no longer of primary importance for survival, the need for consolidation of multiple city-states and regions under a single government is now being questioned.

Occasionally there are statements concerning succession within the U.S., although formal movements have yet to take hold. In some cases there are economic factors that would influence how things would work out. For example, Sig Silber (GEI Opinion) recently determined that succession of New Mexico as an independent nation had severe economic problems, a regional secession including surrounding southwestern states, including Texas, to form a new nation would be economically feasible. See The Nation of New Mexico.

• Flight 370: When facts are few, imaginations run wild (Ann O’Neill, CNN) Hat tip to Alun Hill. Great summary of the story and a virtual library of news videos.

• Forests Around Chernobyl Aren’t Decaying Properly (Rachel Nuwer, Smithsonian.com) Some commenters contest the article’s representation of facts.

• Retirement Strategy: The ETF-Only Portfolio Versus Buy-The-Dips Portfolio, Game On! (Alan Saltzman, Regarded Solutions, Seeking Alpha) Via GEI discussion group on LinkedIn. The author has set up two parallel portfolios with a dividend stock theme. One is an actively managed portfolio of individual stocks and the other a passively managed ETF portfolio. He will be publishing articles tracking the progress of the securities in the two portfolios in real time over the duration of his experiment.

Today there are 12 additional articles discussed ‘behind the wall’.