JCPenney cut a top executive's salary by more than 96 percent. Other corporate boards also took a whack this week at poor performers. The curious case of executives who know they're not doing well, but keep working anyway.

Makers of aged bourbon didn't anticipate a surge in popularity in both the U.S. and overseas, so whiskey distilled years ago is running short. Maker's Mark chose to add water to make its bourbon go further.

Ron Johnson's ousting as CEO of JC Penney ends his bid to break retail's cycle of marking products up just to mark them down in sales. Shoppers rejected Johnson's strategy of keeping low prices instead of discounting.

We'll know more later this morning with the latest retail sales figures for April. The forecast is for sales to be down after mild weather pushed extra spending into the first three months of the year. But at least one segment of the retail sector has been hanging on to growth.