They quit senior roles at AIG for other leading posts in the insurance industry after Mr Greenberg seemed to play off one against the other without choosing either to take over from him.

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Since the sports franchises could play one off against the other, the prices paid to Major League Baseball and to the National Football League, were huge.

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If each faction chooses to push its own Islamist, modernist or Berber agenda, parliament will be paralysed, and the authorities will be able to play one off against the other.

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BJP, it has a wider choice of allies and can therefore play one off against the other.

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Some entrepreneurs whose investment needs fall somewhere between venture-capital and angels can play one off against the other.

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But if you were a general, with your lifelong colleagues facing unemployment, wouldn't you play one politician off against the other?

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