Place your bets.

so we're hedging our bets here.

I don't like to make bets.

I don't like to make bets.

After all, where else would they place their asset bets?

Extraordinary profits when their bets paid off increased their financial and political power which they still enjoy with taxpayers left to bail them out when their bets turned bad.

Nevertheless, the West appears to be hedging its bets by sustaining contacts with the opposition.

It is impossible to tell who is making good bets and who is gambling recklessly.

In this conflict, both sides have raised their bets, and their threats could become a reality.

And, if the bets don t pay off, the cost to the American taxpayer will be even larger.

While the G 20 should not give up on IMF strengthening reforms, it should hedge its bets.

Within little more than a month, a satellite rocket is launched, albeit spectacularly misfiring, and all bets are off.

The payoffs of financial sector executives were tied to highly leveraged bets on the value of their firms capital.

Thus, both seek to hedge their bets, and what better way to do so than by improving their strategic relationship?

The existence of large financial market actors that do not care about maximizing their profits magnifies the riskiness of the bets.

And hedge funds, unlike banks, can leverage their bets, borrowing to take on assets many times the size of their capital base.

But Ehrlich bets what he thinks will be the economic gains that we and our descendants might enjoy against the unborn's very lives.

But Ehrlich bets what he thinks will be the economic gains that we and our descendants might enjoy against the unborn's very lives.

Even as the SARS epidemic raged in China, Japanese companies kept their long term investment bets on the promise of low cost Chinese labor.

So it is clear that some countries now view environmental investments in infrastructure, energy systems, and ecosystems as among the best bets for recovery.

And the bets that John F. Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson made in Vietnam had devastating consequences, some of which are still being felt today.

In the short run, Merrill, like the other investment banks, was allowed to double up its bets. It remained entirely outside the purview of the regulators.

Investors and businesses don t fear that a new regime can take power and call off all, or too many, bets, leading to losses on their investments.

But China is also certain to learn from its mistakes, and its leaders have a clear vision of where to place their long term economic bets.

Now all bets are off. In the United States, offshore drilling seems set to go the way of nuclear power, with new projects being shelved for decades.

Above all, regulators would force financiers to hold more cash on hand to cover their own bets, and not rely so much on taxpayers as a backstop.

Huge bets have undoubtedly been placed on the bonds of GM, Ford, Chrysler, and GMAC, and bankruptcy will be a CDS triggering event requiring repayment of these bonds.

Silvio Berlusconi, who becomes President of the European Union on July 1 st , is a man of vision who once loved risk and whose business bets paid off big.

Seiring dengan penyerapan kesadaran ini ke dalam pasar, asset owners tengah melindungi taruhan mereka (hedging their bets) dengan menambah investasi mereka pada industri dan perusahaan rendah karbon seperti Tesla.

However, if the war drags on, if Baghdad comes under siege with heavy civilian casualties or if weapons of mass destruction are actually used all bets could be off.

So, in this tale of two South American neighbors, unfortunately, little will change unless, as so often happens, the unexpected suddenly becomes inevitable, in which case all bets are off.

It is commonly assumed (but nobody takes big bets) that the Nasdaq still carries major downside risks while the euro, sooner or later, must return to normality, whatever that means.

Companies and investors are hedging their bets by taking a few resource efficiency measures and investing in some low carbon assets, but leaving their high carbon portfolios and activities largely intact.

Similarly, any financial institution that bets on a sharp rise in long term interest rates over the next five years in a serious, leveraged way also puts its survival at risk.

The French government is no longer placing all its bets on big, state led projects, as it did in the 1970s heyday of massive investment in high speed trains and Airbus.

It is even more difficult for those who claim to know this and who want to make large long run contrarian bets to convince others to trust them with their money.

With huge profits and bonuses at stake, mega banks won t readily abandon their model based businesses but, unless that happens, placing most of our bets on top down rules would be reckless folly.

With huge profits and bonuses at stake, mega banks won t readily abandon their model based businesses but, unless that happens, placing most of our bets on top down rules would be reckless folly.

But if the international crisis lasts longer than the first half of 2010, all bets are off, and Colombia will struggle to find its economic footing in a region devastated by generalized contraction.

Thus, even in extreme situations like the peak of the dot com bubble in late 1999 and early 2000 it is very difficult even for those who believe that they know what fundamental values are to make large long run bets on them. It is even more difficult for those who claim to know this and who want to make large long run contrarian bets to convince others to trust them with their money.

They believe that the primary cause of the crisis was what economists call moral hazard because risk takers expected that the authorities would intervene to protect them when their bets went awry, they took even greater risks.

Because when it asked its staff, all its staff, to place their bets on whether they thought the store would open on time or not, a group from the finance department placed all their chips on that not happening.

And, with trillions of dollars swirling around global financial markets, this predictability creates a fat target, with investors willing to make massive bets when they are pretty sure they are right, even if the profit per dollar is small.

And hedge funds, unlike banks, can leverage their bets, borrowing to take on assets many times the size of their capital base. Otherwise, George Soros and his wealthy fellow investors could not have dreamed of taking on the Bank of England.

In the meantime, a major effort must be launched to assuage the concerns of Iran s neighbors, several of which will be tempted to hedge their bets against Iran s potential breakout in 15 years by pursuing nuclear programs of their own.