Games that People Play(3):- Strategical Horse Racing by SunBin

Case 1:  Happened before 320BC:

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孙膑赛马:

战国时候，齐国大将田忌很喜欢赛马。他每次和齐威王赛马，都要押上重金赌输赢。他们把各自的马分为上、中、下三等。比赛时，上等马对上等马，中等马对中等马，下等马对下等马。由于齐威王每个等级的马都比田忌的强，每次赛马，田忌都以失败而告终。

一次，田忌又比输了，正闷闷不乐地离开赛场，他的朋友孙膑对他说：“从刚才比赛的情形看，齐威王的马比你的快不了多少，下次比赛，你只管下重金和他赌输赢，我有办法让你取胜。”田忌疑惑地看看孙膑：“你是说给我换几匹好马吗？”孙膑摇头说：“不是。”田忌知道孙膑足智多谋，看着他胸有成竹的样子，没再多问。

等到比赛那天，孙膑向田忌面授机宜说：“第一场，用你的下等马去同他的上等马周旋；第二场，用你的上等马去对付他的中等马；第三场，你用中等马对付他的下等马。”结果，第一场比赛田忌输了，第二、三场比赛赢了，最终以2：1获胜。这下，齐威王目瞪口呆，只好眼睁睁地看着田忌得意地拿走了自己的千金。

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Brief Translation:

Strategical Horse Racing by SunBin:

SunBin(孙膑; died 316 BC), grandson of SunTzu(孙子) who is famous for his "Art of War", was a military advisor who lived during the Warring States Period of China history.

During that time, there was a military general of Qi State(齐国) - TianJi (田忌).  TianJi often invited to have horse racing competitions by his king - King Wei (齐威王).  Everytime, they both put heavy bet on the competition.  The competition consisted of 3 races.  So, they used their first class horses for the first race, second class horses for the second race, and third class horses for the third race.   Because King Wei had faster horses in all the three categories than TianJi had,   TianJi had always lost.

Once, SunBin was a guest of the Tianji and invited to attend the race.  Again, Tianji lost all the three races again and felt very upset.  SunBin spoke to Tianji:"I noticed that the horses that King Wei has in each category is not much faster than yours.  Next time, you can smiply put heavier bet, and I have a strategy for you to win the competition."

Wait until the next race, SunBin asked TianJi to use his 3rd class horse to race with KingWei 1st class horse in the first round.  TianJi's horse lost by far distance in the first round.  In the second round, SunBin used TianJi 1st class horse to win KingWei 2nd class horse.  And, in the final round, SunBin used TianJi 2nd class horse to win KingWei 3rd class horse.  KingWei was shocked to see the result and TianJi won BIG TIME during that race.

Case 2: Happening Now:

Pictures from Smart Money Magazine.

It was an old conspiracy that USA would keep most of their crude oil reserve untounched while promote gas-guzzler vehicles to use up other countries crude oil first....  Then, when it come to a time that other countries oil reserve is about to finish, they would anounce they just discover that they have many new oil fields at home...

Now, lets look that this month issue, August 2012, Smart Money magazine feature story: The Return of Fossil Fuels.  The headline says:

 "Enormous new oil and gas discoveries under American soil are having a game-changing impact on the entire economy - affecting everything from what we're putting in our portfolios to what we're parking in our driveways.  How to play the new energy boom."

So, is this news just a coincident?  Or, just another strategical game practised from The Art of War?

May be the above queations are not important.  What important is the implication?

So, US has surplus in their food supply, water supply, energy supply and strongest military advantage...  Why should they care about debt?   Therefore, print money and be happy.

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