echomonster responded to a discussion called How of you read a financial newspaper or magazine.? in reading.
1 day ago
I'm from the USA and read the Wall Street Journal and the Economist. They keep me informed of the business world and really news in general, which helps me make wise investment choices. Actually, I have to agree with another responder that there's something addicting about the financial news...I bet some people read them even if they don't have much connection to the business world. I can even ...

echomonster responded to a discussion called Do any one read tamil novels? in reading.
1 day ago
Unfortunately, I've never read any Tamil literature. (OK, a long long time ago I read Thirukural which was wonderful! But that's getting very classical, isn't it?) Do you know if any Tamil authors' works are available in English translation? I did searches on Amazon.com for Sandilyan and Ramanichandran, but didn't find any novels by them.

echomonster commented on a news article called Obama says it's now Senate's turn on health care in latest business news.
5 hours ago
I wonder if the Senate will be able to clean the bill up somewhat. I think it's a terrible idea to force people to buy health insurance and fine them if they don't...what about individual freedom?! I'm also very skeptical about how the bill will be funded. Cutting hundreds of billions of dollars from Medicare without hurting seniors seems impossible...we want to cut an amount that's bigger than...

echomonster commented on a news article called Italy routs Williams-less US team to win Fed Cup in tennis news.
5 hours ago
The Italians were the favorites without the Williams' sisters playing for the US and they lived up to expectations. It's good that some American youngsters got the experience of playing, but it's disappointing the Williams' would just abandon the team as they did. I'd think that Serena at least wouldn't want the bad publicity right now, but maybe she's way past caring. The Italians did a great ...

echomonster commented on a news article called Jobless: 10 percent is tougher than it used to be in latest business news.
5 hours ago
This article is exactly right: unemployment hurts more when you have lots of debt and little savings! Debt-fueled consumption has powered the American economy for too long. People need to rebuild their personal safety nets, saving and investing more but borrowing far less. It's time to change our ways.

echomonster commented on a news article called Federer loses to Djokovic in Swiss Indoors final in tennis results.
5 hours ago
Djokovic is definitely one of the players who can beat Federer now. Good job for him to beat Federer in Switzerland. Thank goodness there are players that can beat Roger fairly regularly now -- I hate when "dominant players" totally take over the game. Competition makes things much more interesting.

echomonster commented on a news article called Unhappy Iverson leaves Grizzlies 'indefinitely' in basketball news.
5 hours ago
The Grizz are the team that's closest to me geographically, but man have they made some boneheaded moves over the years. Why the heck would you sign a player of Allen Iverson's caliber and have him sit on the bench? He's still a great player, still way better than the Grizzlies' mainly young stars. You don't keep a great player from playing while profiting from ticket sales of people who also w...

echomonster commented on a news article called Casey: Shootings leading to a hard look at Army in presidential cabinet news.
5 hours ago
I don't think we can entirely ignore Hasan's Islamic faith. Anyone who takes the Ft. Hood shootings as an indication that all, or most, American Muslims want to attack us is absolutely nuts. On the other hand, there are brands of radical Islam that have encouraged and continue to encourage terrorism. I don't think we can afford to pretend that it doesn't exist and that it's all individuals acti...

echomonster commented on a news article called Afghan vows to keep corrupt officials out of govt in asian news.
6 hours ago
Is Karzai going to remove himself? I think that's what it would take to restore confidence in the Afghan government. I really don't believe Karzai is "Mr. Clean" and just surrounded by corrupt officials that just happened to swing the election in his favor. No way...Afghanistan unfortunately has a corrupt president.

echomonster commented on a news article called Utah girl's pierced nose: US-Indian culture clash in national news.
5 hours ago
I don't think this should be a big deal in America at all. We should be tolerant of others' cultures, and it's common for children to want to connect with their parents' culture. Schools emphasize "discipline" to control the kids, but I feel like they do a poor job of instilling self-discipline. It requires self-discipline to keep on doing your work even if another student looks different -- th...