Fadil had a lot of money and played a lot of money.

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

Homeowners around the world effectively gamble on home prices.

By punishing Pussy Riot, Putin has staked his presidency on an eventual conservative victory. Which side the Holy Virgin takes remains to be seen.

But everybody's got and I believe in a pluralistic society everybody's betting on something.

Cameron s bet was that this adjustment would stimulate, not hinder, growth.

So if the correlation makes sense given the fundamentals, it seems sensible to bet on its persistence.

The EU bet here is that, on the back of Croatia s accession, the enlargement logjam in the western Balkans will finally be broken.

So far, Obama s handling of the Snowden affair shows that he places more stock in the logic of security than in adherence to principle.

President Barack Obama, acting as if the latter scenario remains likely, is betting on large scale government spending to prop up the real economy.

It s so tempting that Ortega is likely to help rehabilitate Arnoldo Alemán, betting that freeing him will serve his political interests.

Everyone can bet on a run on the Argentine peso a favorite sport of international financial speculators for a century and a half.

He is wagering his scant remaining authority on the talks success, and Palestinians will be counting down his days in office should he fail.

George Soros can bet on a run on the British pound. Thai import export firms can bet on a run on the baht by accelerating their dollar receipts and delaying their dollar payouts.

Abbas is being asked to play for high stakes defeating Hamas and with it the cause of Islamic fundamentalism in the region with inadequate resources.

The answer appears to be that there is nobody in the financial centers of New York, London, Tokyo, Frankfurt, and Hong Kong who thinks it is their business to bet on a future flight from the dollar.

Many optimistic observers of China, often mollified by their close relations with the Communist regime, bet on a soft transition from despotism toward an open society, but recent events don t support such a benign interpretation.

Rather than relying on war as an economic mega project to end today s recession, the international community should bet on the fight against the climate crisis, because globalization will continue, rapidly increasing the threats to the world s climate.

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.

What we have witnessed since August is the latest battle in a Kulturkampf between Russia s liberal intelligentsia and conservative, often fundamentalist, believers in the unity of the Orthodox Church and the Kremlin. By punishing Pussy Riot, Putin has staked his presidency on an eventual conservative victory.

Is he gambling on the chance of a Republican presidency in 2016? If so, he got the applause but, given the current polls, the latter motive would be quite a gamble.

In these circumstances, with China s financial system too fragile to withstand external shocks, and the global economy mired in turmoil, the PBOC would be unwise to gamble on the ability of rapid capital account liberalization to generate a healthier and more robust financial system.

Having performed poorly in a spate of recent state elections, the ruling Congress Party is betting that the new budget will swing voters its way if the national election, currently scheduled for April 2009, is moved forward to this autumn.