Chevron, for example, has invested heavily in shale production in the Marcellus field in Pennsylvania, while ConocoPhillips has been working hard at the Eagle Ford formation in Texas.

FORBES: The Shale Scramble: Exxon Buying Bakken Assets For $1.6B From Denbury

In particular, taxes should not: discourage hard work and risk taking, impede capital formation, impose high costs for computation and enforcement, favor particular groups or activities, or intrude on individual liberty any more than is absolutely necessary.

FORBES: Spending Is Choking Us And Tax Cuts Are No Heimlich Maneuver

Under snowy skies this week, inmates marched onto the frozen lake in military formation in winter-weight prison greens and hard hats.

WSJ: NY inmates help build ice palace in Adirondacks

Another is to alter the voting system in a way that avoids the formation of coalitions, which have found it so hard to be decisive.

ECONOMIST: Action man

The thinking behind his three centre-back formation is that Brazil press opponents back, with the strikers working hard to regain possession of the ball close to the opposing goal.

BBC: Win unmasks Brazil

Many worry that it will be hard to say the same about the recommendations of the Sixth Pay Commission, whose formation the cabinet approved last month.

ECONOMIST: Oh to be a civil servant