The government's main experiment so far, cutting welfare benefits for lone parents, may cause more couples to stay together: Robert Walker, of Loughborough University, studied a group of lone mothers and concluded that welfare benefits had made it easier for them to decide to leave their partners.

ECONOMIST: The family

It ended the experiment because it seemed to be cutting traffic to the site and harming advertising revenue.

ECONOMIST: Charging for newspapers online

But if 30 days sans shopping sounds a little extreme to you ( although author Judith Levine stretched her experiment to 365), McNeal has some advice on easing into the cost-cutting mindset.

FORBES: How To Have A Frugal (And Fabulous) February

From the monetary side, the Federal Reserve used its normal stimulus tool of cutting interest rates, and when even drastic cuts had no impact, it launched what it admitted was an untried experiment, so-called quantitative easing, in an effort to do its part in helping to lift the economy out of the worst recession in 80 years.

FORBES: Who Will Buy All Those Treasury Bonds When The Fed Stops?