In huge change, Obama to strip Fed of power over credit cards

By Kevin G. Hall and Tony Pugh | McClatchy Newspapers

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama will propose Wednesday creating a new body to regulate financial products such as mortgages and credit cards, with an eye toward protecting consumers and ordinary investors. It's a radical shift in approach and a tacit acknowledgment of federal failure.

Obama will unveil the broadest proposed revamp of financial regulations since the Great Depression, addressing many of the shortcomings that left the U.S. financial system on the brink of collapse and triggered the recession.