Let's chalk up one of the first casualties to the salary limits imposed by the government. American International Group's (AIG) vice chairwoman for legal, human resources, corporate affairs and corporate communications, Anastasia Kelly resigned Wednesday for "good reason."

And what was that good reason? It sure seems that it's the pay restrictions levied by Kenneth R. Feinberg, the pay czar assigned by the Obama administration to monitor pay at companies that received taxpayer bailouts. At AIG, the 26th through the 100th highest-paid employees (along with the other firms) have had their cash salaries limited to $500,000.

Late yesterday, Janus Capital Group (NYSE:JNS) reported second-quarter earnings of 10 cents per share compared to a net loss of $5.22 per share in the first quarter. The first-quarter results included charges of $5.21 per share.

The company also announced that it is going to offer $150 million in new common stock, along with $150 million of convertible senior notes due in 2014. According to the company, the notes will be convertible under certain circumstances into cash, shares of JNS stock, or a combination of the two - depending on what the company chooses. The company will use the money raised and other cash to buy back as much as $400 million of the aggregate principal amount of the firm's outstanding 2011, 2012, and 2017 senior notes.

Just after the close of the market Wednesday, Overstock.com (NASDAQ: OSTK) issued a press release announcing the departure of a top executive. Effective December 31, Jason Lindsey resigned as president and chief operating officer and left the board of directors. Lindsey was the third Overstock board member to resign in 2007.

This hurts, and observers can only wonder if this is a sign of the Overstock.com ship finally sinking under the direction of CEO Patrick Byrne. Byrne is known far and wide for his publicity stunts and various antics in the name of his pet projects, all the while his company is unable to turn a profit.

What's even more telling about this departure is that Lindsey helped found the company. Byrne is quoted, "When I screwed it up a couple years ago, he came out of retirement, and has played a decisive role getting it back on track." At least Byrne is finally willing to admit that he screwed up the company!

So ... Was CEO Terry Semel really so bad that he had to resign?

In a word, yes.

In my opinion, Terry Semel needed to be shown the door long ago and should have made a quiet, respectful and pride-saving exit from Yahoo! (NASDAQ: YHOO). I'm not happy with the way his resignation is now being handled either. He should be moving down the road to new and exciting endeavors, leaving Yahoo! to formulate its own new plans. Instead, he has gingerly stayed in his chairman role, in a non-executive role, hanging around like the brother-in-law who just wrecked your car and says he'll help you fix it.

Don't take my word for it, though. A flood of commentary from all across the web includes such things as:

"...it's safe to say, (the share holders) are not happy at all with the current performance and are sending a message loud and clear, Terry Semel's got to turn things around" - RSS Micro