Reports this week indicate that Kenneth Feinberg, the Obama administration's pay czar, has a darkly comic definition of "tough love." While Feinberg reduced overall cash compensation for the top earners at American International Group (AIG) by a healthy 63%, a closer look reveals that the insurance company's high-ranking employees are still pulling down the kind of eye-popping annual pay you might expect from a successful business.

If you were to calculate a headlines/efficacy ratio for government and corporate leaders, executive pay czar Kenneth Feinberg would have to rank pretty high on the "most press for least accomplished" list.

Now that Bank of America (BAC) and Citigroup (C) are out from the somewhat watchful eye of Mr. Feinberg, he has only American International Group (AIG), the car companies, and GMAC to meddle with at little benefit to anyone.

So what does he do to keep himself occupied? He chats on the phone with Goldman Sachs (GS) CEO Lloyd Blankfein about how that company can better align pay for its executives, even though he has no authority over -- or interest in -- that company's policies.

In an upcoming interview with Judy Woodruff on Bloomberg Television, executive pay czar Kenneth L. Feinberg complains that "The biggest disappointment, I think, is that under the statute my jurisdiction is so narrow, and so circumscribed, that I have no real direct mandatory power over other Wall Street or other national companies."

Which is, to be honest, terrifying.

Can you imagine this! Anastasia Kelly, chairman for legal, human resources, corporate affairs and corporate communications resigned effective December 30. She claims to be eligible for severance pay under the company's executive severance plan of $2.8 million dollars.

The employees at American International Group, Inc. (AIG) have so far been able to mix arrogance with incompetence to a new level. First off, it was their incompetence that took AIG to its knees. AIG had to be bailed out to the tune of $180 billion dollars by the U.S. government. The government owns 80% of AIG.

Kenneth Feinberg of the U.S. Treasury Department is the point man who reviews salaries at firms which received bailout money.

His latest move was to cap the compensation at four financial firms: Citigroup Inc. (C), American International Group (AIG), General Motors Corp. (GRM) and GMAC (GMA). The pay structures affect 28 through 100 highest paid employees. Compensation is capped at $500,000.

During the past year, there's been no shortage of discussion about executive pay at American International Group (AIG) -- and the deluge continues. CEO Robert Benmosche reportedly threatened to walk last month over frustrations with the Obama administration's pay caps, but was persuaded to stay by the company's board.

Apparently, Benmosche's maneuver inspired five other AIG execs to issue similar threats, with the group warning last week that they might walk if pay czar Kenneth Feinberg gets too handsy with their compensation packages.

While Timothy Geithner gets deservedly raked over the coals for handling the America International Group (AIG) "negotiations" with kid gloves, federal officials are pressuring executive pay czar Kenneth Feinberg to ease pay restrictions on the company for the year 2010.

The concern is that tight pay restrictions, while politically popular, might hurt AIG's ability to attract and retain competent people -- thereby putting the taxpayers' long-term investment in the company at even greater risk.

A few lucky executives at Citigroup (C) received base pay raises this year, but CEO Vikram Pandit isn't among them. The bank announced that it will compensate Pandit exactly $1 for his services, with no stock salary. Last year, the chief executive collected a modest salary (by Wall Street standards) of $958,333.

Meanwhile, Chief Financial Officer John Gerspach's base compensation was hiked from $400,000 to $500,000 effective Nov. 1. James Forese, co-head of global markets, enjoyed an even heftier pay raise -- his base salary jumped from $225,000 to $475,000.

Speaking at Bloomberg Washington Summit Friday, Steven Rattner, the former head of the government's auto task force, wasn't exactly in the mood for pulling punches.

Referring to his time overseeing the government involvement in the auto industry, he said that "They were some of the worst-run companies I've ever seen in my life," and said there was plenty of blame to go around, including unions and the companies' executives.

Executive pay czar Kenneth Feinberg could approve the compensation package for income American International Group (NYSE: AIG) CEO Robert Benmosche as soon as next week.

According to The Wall Street Journal (subscription required), "Mr. Benmosche, a former CEO of insurer MetLife Inc., was pressing for a quick resolution in large part to energize AIG employees and show them that AIG employees could be well-compensated, according to people familiar with the matter."

President Obama and Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner have selected Washington lawyer Kenneth R. Feinberg to serve as the executive pay czar. Feinberg will be charged with setting pay standards for top executives at the seven companies that received the most bailout money.

The New York Times reports that "For 80 other financial institutions that have received federal assistance, Mr. Feinberg will develop the overall compensation structure, but without setting the exact level of pay. For these 80 companies, the goal is to reduce excessive risk-taking by executives whose compensation is tied to company performance. Mr. Feinberg will also determine whether it would be in the public interest to force any executives at companies receiving assistance who might have been overpaid to return some pay."