[skeeter]

As I commented earlier, do you think this may have anything to do with the progress of the illegal immigration bill through the Senate? It has an eerie feeling of Hawley-Smoot and 1929, where a very, very bad bill seemed to have its own momentum and no one could stop it.

Nah. If anything, the prospect of millions of dirt poor third worlders willing to live like dogs on our doorsteps & work for peanuts should have investors doing backflips.

On the other hand, the explosion of the welfare state which will surely result could have them a bit skittish.

[LS]

Remember, however: "big business" BACKED Hawley-Smoot, expecting the same kinds of financial payoffs that you mention as possibly accompanying the immigration bill. And it was "big business" that paid the highest price.