Notice 2012-72 contains the standard mileage rates, the amount a taxpayer must use in calculating reductions to basis for depreciation taken under the business standard mileage rate, and the maximum standard automobile cost that a taxpayer may use in computing the allowance under a fixed and variable rate plan.

FORBES: 2013 IRS Mileage Rate Increases To 56.5 Cents Per Mile

With a "pay for performance" plan, a doctor would receive a fixed rate for, say, fixing someone's knee, eliminating the incentive to order up lots of unnecessary test.

FORBES: Health Care Reform

The plan includes refinancing some of the borrowers into private, fixed-rate mortgages, or putting them into Federal Housing Administration loans.

FORBES: Magazine Article

Under this plan, a borrower can consolidate his loans after graduation to achieve a fixed rate.

WSJ: Review & Outlook: Obama's Student-Loan Props

Something similar happened in Argentina after it adopted its convertibility plan: people started to believe that biting the bullet of a permanently fixed exchange rate was enough, on its own, to cure the economy's problems.

ECONOMIST: The search for scapegoats | The

Mr. Obama's plan is purely for fixed, not floating, rates at the 10-year Treasury rate plus 0.93% or 2.93% depending on the type of Stafford loan, and it has no rate cap.

WSJ: Review & Outlook: Obama's Student-Loan Props

Unlike the Californian plan, they will extend to the one-third of subprime borrowers who took out fixed-rate mortgages.

ECONOMIST: Mortgage restructuring