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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 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.

Meanwhile, US efforts to stimulate its economy through the Federal Reserve s policy of quantitative easing may backfire. After all, in globalized financial markets, money looks for the best prospects around the world, and these prospects are in Asia, not the US. So the money won t go where it s needed, and much of it will wind up where it s not wanted causing further increases in asset and commodity prices, especially in emerging markets.