Consumer Confidential: Bank bonuses, Wal-Mart tags, white iPhones

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Here’s your go-with-the-flow Friday roundup of consumer news from around the Web:

--Here’s a little something guaranteed to make you feel good: The Treasury Department’s pay czar says 17 bailed-out banks handed out $1.6 billion in payouts to their top execs. You got that right. While taxpayers were keeping these guys afloat, banking bigwigs were pocketing gobs of cash to reward them for ... what? A job well done? Paymeister Kenneth Feinberg says he lacks the authority to ask banking execs to give back the cash, so it looks like we’ll just have stomach this.

--Wal-Mart will put newfangled radio tags on clothing to keep better tabs on inventory. The tags will allow workers to simply wave a wand and determine whether shelves are adequately stocked with all sizes of various garments. But privacy mavens are concerned. They say that even though consumers can remove the tags once they get home, thieves might still be able to scan your garbage and determine what you bought. They also worry that introduction of radio technology on driver’s licenses and other ID cards will allow marketers to get a better sense of our shopping habits. This all seems a little Brave New World to me, but I’ll be looking more closely at the clothes I buy.

--Jonesing for a white iPhone? Not so fast, compadre. Apple says the coveted white version of the iPhone 4 won’t be available until ‘later this year,’ as opposed to a planned release this month. The company says it’s just been tougher than expected to make the white models. Anyone want to bet that when they come out, the new iPhones will mysteriously have their antenna in a different spot? Just speculating.

-- David Lazarus