In financial news, the White House pay czar overseeing seven major bailed-out firms actually increased base salaries at the same time as he cut overall compensation last week. Kenneth Feinberg reduced compensation by about half for 136 employees, including twenty-five executives. But the Wall Street Journal reports Feinberg raised salaries an average fourteen percent after the banks complained. Neither Feinberg nor the Treasury Department discussed the salary increases when they announced the cuts last week. The increases offset the total cuts by “a small amount.”