Since taxpayers remain on the hook for pension benefits promised, even if all the pension money is lost as a result of bad investment decisions, they alone will pay the price when dice-rolling decisions of public fund boards turn ugly.
FORBES: City Garbage Collectors Become Sophisticated Hedge Fund Investors
"If the player is just rolling dice to update status and once every 20 minutes he gets to make a decision, that's horrible, " Beach said.
Nevertheless, the evidence from more than 50 years of research is conclusive: for a large majority of fund managers, the selection of stocks is more like rolling dice than like playing poker.
Strategy board games back in the 1970s and '80s, like "Blitzkrieg" and "War in Europe, " were simulation-type games requiring players to spend a lot of time rolling dice to resolve combat or find out different game stats -- weather conditions, civil unrest, troop rally points.
Betting on the gift of rain from Mother Nature is a lot like rolling the dice.
Tuckwell, 54, is a gifted marketer with a knack for rolling the dice.
The side effects--fever, fatigue and anemia--are so bad that many patients forgo treatment, rolling the dice that their livers won't fail.
"It's a bit like rolling a dice, but if done right it's better than nothing, " says Robert Bacal, author of Performance Management.
Without it you rely on word of mouth tactics and if your strategy is built around that then you really are rolling the dice.
FORBES: Mr Popularity: What Really Makes Apple, Steve Jobs an Online Powerhouse
Still, we suspect that caveat won't stop owners from rolling the dice on an update check for their TiVo every day over the next few weeks.
ENGADGET: TiVo Spring update brings new Netflix and YouTube experience
It involves the person being questioned rolling two dice and following rules as to whether they should answer truthfully or dishonestly, depending on the numbers rolled.
The producers were also eager to discuss the dice the network is rolling with the series, which is more reminiscent of a cable show than a broadcast one.
Small investors have often taken this to heart by rolling the dice on companies with a chance of becoming the next Google while shunning stodgy old industrials and soapmakers.
But as my FORBES colleague Jeff Bercovici pointed out right after the earnings call, Facebook is rolling the dice in a big way with its push into Sponsored Stories.
FORBES: Facebook's Torment: How Hard to Push Sponsored Stories
To cut down on the risk of a plaintiff or his lawyers foolishly rejecting a settlement and rolling the dice on a trial, or accepting too little for a big-dollar case, Fields spends most of his time trying to determine whether the parties are aligned in their interests.
FORBES: Juridica Chief Used To Argue Lawsuits, Now He Invests In Them
应用推荐