Cut Salaries Raises Questions About Limits of Authority

"Since these companies owe money to the federal government, that gives the Obama administration political leverage -- to exercise its ownership stake, or to embarrass the executives in the press, or to target the companies in any number of other ways.

The move by the Obama administration is for now limited to the seven top bailed-out companies and will not touch firms like Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan Chase, which repaid the government.

But President Obama on Wednesday announced plans to increase lending to small businesses and to give them greater access to the rescue fund, leaving some to question whether Feinberg might have authority to dictate executive pay at those firms as well."