The big bangs usually don't happen directly, do they. And tort reform doesn't look like it's going to occur by way of a lot of earnest legal experts arguing for a more predictable, fair system.
Instead what's getting noticed and probably will get the big-bang action is New York Senator Chuck Schumer's very non-legal argument. Schumer's argument is all about 30,000 to 60,000 lost jobs in America's key industry - finance. It's also about the industry's declining prestige in the world market for capital.
In a very methodical manner, Senator Schumer, along with New York Mayor (and finance type) Bloomberg, commissioned a McKinsey Study about how recent litigation and regulation have affected Wall Street's competitiveness. The results were no surprise. The cover story for THE ECONOMIST (November 25th - December 1st) was: "Wall Street: What Went Wrong." It's also no surprise that the power brokers and influencers are listening. From THE WALL STREET JOURNAL to the web's bulletin boards, the reaction is intense. Even former New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer, who piled on a lot of that litigation and regulation on the securities industry, supports the McKinsey research.
Major reform is in the wings. The only question is: Will it happen fast enough? And that's a question other states with their own key industries or the lack of them have to ask. Ohio is an example of the lack of them. Brand Ohio sends the message: Old Economy. Old economic development thinking. Old power plays by old-line politicians.
That horrific brand identity has gotten even more horrific with its Governor's veto of Substitute Senate bill 117. If 117 became law the monkey of public nuisance would be taken off business' backs. The brand wouldn't be fixed but it would be out of the ICU.
Ohio needs its own shrewd, methodical version of Senator Schumer. And he or she needs to produce a chilling study done by a top-tier research firm on how the state is economically stuck. Then it needs a top-tier publicist to get that story out to the right people. The rest shouldn't be that difficult.
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