Economists (including Mr Coase) have tended to emphasise property rights as a solution to the problem of managing common resources.

ECONOMIST: The Nobel prize for economics

The logical solution, de Soto argues, is to bestow property on slum dwellers, a reform effort that has shown promise.

FORBES: Is 'Slumdog Millionaire' Real?

The sudden and wholesale destruction of the pseudo-property system for information goods is not the solution, though left unchecked that is the natural response of the transaction cost-free Internet.

FORBES: Leahy's Protect IP Act: Why Internet content wars will never end

Since water is a common property resource, no one owns the problem and no one owns the solution.

FORBES: World Water Day 2013: Water as a Catalyst for Peace

Yet the very solution that had been adopted for Japan's macroeconomic problem after its stock- and property markets crashed in 1990, a big expansion of public-works spending, ended up making reform harder.

ECONOMIST: It deserves, for Japan's sake, to be rewarded

Late last week, a new solution came onto the scene, and in a very visible way: TechCrunch, another AOL property which has similar commenting problems (fanboys, trolls, you know: the fun types) threw the switch on Facebook's new and improved native commenting system.

ENGADGET: Editorial: Facebook, single identities, and the right to be anonymous

The solution: a log book that lists your hours and the tasks you performed each day in detail on a property by property basis.

FORBES: How Real Estate Investors Can Protect Themselves From The IRS