What We Read Today 09 August 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 (and sometimes longer ones) 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.

• Number of unaccompanied child migrants falls by half: US (AFP, MSN News) In June the official number of children crossing the U.S. border from Mexico was 10,628. In July it is just over half that, 5,508. The number od adults entering accompanied by children fell even more, from 16,330 in June to 7,410 in July. Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson says the response to handle the influx of illegal immigrants has been improving but is about to hit a wall: Money is running out and Congress has recessed without addressing the problem.

• Euro Slide Continues on ECB Commentary (Barbara Zigah, DailyForex) The euro traded as low as 1.3345 vs the U.S. dollar on Thursday before firming slightly to 1.3410 on Friday. The euro has been in a three month slide since briefly hitting 1.4000 in early May.

• Half the country doesn’t think Watergate was a real scandal!? Why? (Philip Bump, The Washington Post) Does the fact that half the current population in the U.S. wasn’t born yet when Nixon resigned? Is this similar to thought process factors involved in Holocaust denial? Or is simply human nature to want to forget the unpleasant? Maybe this is the reason that so much of history seems to be repeating the past (or at least rhymes).

• Geography Lesson (David Kennerr, Flowing Data)

• Island of safety becomes a death trap (The Washington Post) Read related story: Desperate Iraqi Yazidis flee into Syria after Kurdish forces secure escape route (Loveday Morris, The Washington Post).
  

  Between 10,000 and 40,000 ethnic Yazidis are trapped in the Sinjar Mountains after fleeing attacks by fighters from the Islamic State (IS). The 4,400-foot-high Sinjar range is venerated by the Yazidis. They believe it to be the place where Noah’s ark settled after the biblical flood. The Sinjar Mountains are a barren ridge – four miles wide, 25 miles long and devoid of plant life, water or shade.

Click for large image.

There are 12 articles discussed today ‘behind the wall’.

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