Ben Bernanke and the six-dog night

Pictured: Diamond Zac (number 3, far right) winning the $10,000 Keenan Concrete Wanganui Cup in December 2008. Photo. Stuart Munro

Just look at this chart  - the markets are happy.

And not just in New Zealand, equity markets around the world are breathing again. It's almost as if the greatest financial crisis in generations didn't even happen.

It did, of course, and there's still a fair mess to clean up as the most powerful man in money, Ben Bernanke, head of the Federal Reserve,in a Wall Street Journal (WSJ) opinion piece this week.

At some point, Bernanke admitted, the Fed would have to pull a reverse stimulus or its fiddling with the money supply "could ultimately result in inflationary pressures".

"We are confident we have the necessary tools to withdraw policy accommodation, when that becomes appropriate, in a smooth and timely manner," he said.

The Fed certainly had the tools, a companion WSJ editorial noted, but questioned its will to use them in time to avert another bubble.

"... the Fed chief reiterated that it's too early to start tightening and that the Fed will keep its current policy of near-zero interest rates for "an extended period." So how long is extended? Mr. Bernanke didn't say, and we are all supposed to assume that he'll know the right moment when he sees it," the WSJ editorial said.

Someone has to know the right moment, right? This English couple thought they did.

In my favourite story of the week, this UK pair gathered together £46,656 (which they brought to the track stuffed into a "Tesco carrier bag") to bet on every permutation of finishes in a six-dog greyhound race in a fail-safe strategy to scoop the £101,110.39p jackpot pool.

Impeccable logic. Except two other gamblers, including one online punter identified as 'Scoop6 Squirrel', also picked the right combination of dogs leaving the sure-things with only a third share of the jackpot - equating to £33,703.46 or a net loss of almost £13,000.

The moral of the story, I suppose, is that no matter how confident you are of your tools or your strategy, other people can always screw it up.

 

David Chaplin

 

 

Pictured: Diamond Zac (number 3, far right) winning the $10,000 Keenan Concrete Wanganui Cup in December 2008. Photo. Stuart Munro