Although new CAFE standards should encourage the shift away from the thirstiest models, trucks still get off too lightly and the administration seems to have no appetite for the one thing that would radically change buying habits: a big increase in petrol taxes or a more widely applied tax on carbon.

ECONOMIST: The bankruptcy of General Motors

But this will now be applied more widely, with more flexibility over pay levels and progress linked to annual appraisals.

BBC: Teachers' performance pay on pupil progress

Early evidence from those schemes would inform decisions on whether lane rental could usefully be applied more widely, it said.

BBC: Lane rental scheme for digging up roads proposed

Mr. Biden suggested that background checks be applied even more widely, to all private sales, wherever they occur.

WSJ: Biden's Emerging Gun Plan Draws NRA Ire

Silicon Valley has led the options stampede, but has applied it more widely than other firms, as a way to pay the staff without spending much cash: 80% of options granted by high-tech companies went to employees below the top five executives.

ECONOMIST: A survey on pay