Call their bluff?_其他_趣味英语-查字典英语网

Call their bluff?

However, markets, the stock markets that is, keep calling their bluff, i.e. the stock markets never respond in a positive manner. In fact, from New York to Shanghai, London to Tokyo, share prices continue to fall.

To wit, sluggish markets make an unequivocal statement – that world leaders are not effective, even though they go on bragging and whimpering about how capable they are.

To call someone’s bluff, by the way, is an expression developed originally from the game of poker. To bluff in poker is to subtly give your opponents the impression that you have a much stronger hand than you actually possess. This exaggeration of the truth is meant to intimidate the opponents, forcing them to quit or at least waver in their attempt to mount effective counter-attacks.

This is perfectly in compliance, of course, with the principles of Sun Tzu’s Art of War, which stipulates that the best war-winning strategy is to win without battle, by creating an impression, for example, that you outnumber the enemy by 10 to one, thus convincing the enemy that they cannot possibly win. Hence the enemy surrenders without putting up a fight. Hence and therefore bloodshed is avoided.

To call your bluff, on the other hand, is for the opponent to tell you straight in the face that you’re fooling. In other words, they have seen through your tricks. They realize that you’re a paper tiger, all show and no substance.