BRUSSELS Stubbornly low inflation has the European Central Bank worried. But its response essentially just more quantitative easing could backfire, exacerbating imbalances and generating serious financial instability.

Waiting and hoping for more favorable conditions could easily backfire. If there is no movement toward peace as new Arab democracies take shape, negative views of Israel and the US will be hardened.

In practice, however, the construction of legal foundations could weaken the Chinese government s operational flexibility when responding to a Taiwanese move toward independence. The law of unintended consequences dictates that this effort to deny ambiguity to Taiwanese activists could backfire, and instead leave mainland leaders without room to maneuver if Taiwan does attempt to revise the status quo.

Yet Putin may be overplaying the macho card so excessively that it could backfire and contribute to his isolation from Russia s urban and more educated voters. But, even if the tens of thousands of demonstrators are unlikely to threaten the survival of Putin s regime, the Kremlin would be wise to take them seriously.

Though QE might work in a debtor economy with a flexible financial system like the US, it could backfire in a creditor economy with a conservative financial system. This, rather than the fear that the ECB might end up buying the bonds of untrustworthy governments, is the real argument against QE in the eurozone.

Besides, for this to have happened now is a nice coincidence. Because not an hour ago, while we were on our walk, my dog was startled by a backfire and jumped straight up like a horse bucking.

Barry Schwartz makes a passionate call for practical wisdom as an antidote to a society gone mad with bureaucracy. He argues powerfully that rules often fail us, incentives often backfire, and practical, everyday wisdom will help rebuild our world.

Even seemingly purposeful projects can seriously backfire only a few years ago, Europe s well intentioned efforts to stimulate renewables resulted in a solar energy bubble of macroeconomic proportions. Whereas cutting greenhouse gas emissions is necessary, the current generation of relatively inefficient renewables should not be deployed at the expense of the development of more cost effective technology.

Could be, could be.

Recent history provides convincing evidence that policies based on a misrepresenting reality backfire. The Bush administration s response to the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 declaring a War on Terror and treating criticism as unpatriotic succeeded in gathering public support, yet the results were the exact opposite to what the Bush administration intended, both for itself and the United States.

They could be communist, they could be liberal, they could be fascist or Islamic.

There are so many things you could do. You could pay for uniforms, you could eliminate fees, you could build latrines, you could give girls sanitary pads, etc., etc.

Would, could, should, or would, should, could.

They may serve us well as we navigate our daily challenges, but they leave out many details and can backfire when we find ourselves in an environment in which our categorizations and ready made explanations fit less well. The term culture shock refers to situations in which our expectations about people s behavior turn out to be so wrong that we find ourselves jolted by the experience.

You could be American Italian you could be American Irish you could be British Pakistani.

If you could think it, if you could discover it, you could bring it to life.

How could that be, how could that be?

Could be on Google, could be on AOL.

It could be NBC. It could be ABC.

He could pass the examination, could not he?

The sense of, you know, life could be better, I could join this I could be a perfect person, I could join this perfect world.

But it could be in a school, it could be an administration, it could be a hospital.

And you could taste herbs, you could taste spices.

The teapot could be full, it could be empty.

Using the body it could be sneezing, it could be coughing, it could be animals exactly clapping, whatever.

You could you could highlight it you could make it Helvetica or something it is the actual article.

So I could go into edit mode, I could select the theater, I could add down at the bottom the name, and I could save it back.

It could be a phone number, it could be an e mail address, it could be a postal address.

Your mom could get cancer, your dad could get mean.

If we could do that, this could be extremely powerful.

They could not rise up, nor could they find help.

They could not rise up, nor could they find help.

It could be at one dollar it could be 1,000 dollars.

Other things could have happened. The Japanese could have discovered Monterey.

And so, I thought, if this could work, anything could work.

So you could go in, you could get your tummy tuck.

It could compute. It couldn't just calculate. It could do more.

Thereafter they could neither scale it, nor could they pierce it.

Thereafter they could neither scale it, nor could they pierce it.

they could not stand up again, nor could they defend themselves.

they could not stand up again, nor could they defend themselves.

We could solve our energy problems we can reduce CO2, we could clean up our oceans we could make better wine.

And when the Web came along, that changed everything, because not only could we find information, we could find other people like ourselves who could gather, who could bring us information.

You could develop nausea, headache, your muscles could feel like they're contracting, and you could actually feel like your bones are breaking.

Second is that one dollar of aid could be 10 cents it could be 20 cents or it could be four dollars.