• Los Angeles Times, Wednesday, February 3, 2010 10:31 AM

Columnist David Lazarus all but writes an obituary for the Consumer Financial Protection Agency once championed by President Obama but now seemingly a long shot as the administration focuses on "job, jobs, jobs." But what's really killing CFPA, he writes, is a concerted and ferocious campaign by the banking industry to undermine it.

Republican pollster Frank Luntz last month sent clients a memo titled "The Language of Financial Reform" that offers talking points for torpedoing the agency. It plays on people's distrust of politicians and government, Lazarus writes, and advises agency critics to utter such phases as "the architects of failure are now designing the rescue" at every media opportunity. Says Lazarus: "There's a word for what Luntz is doing: misdirection. It's how magicians get you to look another way as they fool you."

Meanwhile, Mintel reports that credit card solicitations mailed to consumers jumped 47% from the previous three-month period during the last three months of 2009. It's the first rise in three years. "There's some cautious optimism among issuers, even though unemployment is still very high," says Mintel svp Andrew Davidson.

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