Gallup: America's Favorite Long-Term Investment Is Gold

Americans feel gold is the safest long-term investment out there, a Gallup survey finds. Gold beat out four other types of investments perceived as the best long-term choice out there, with 28 percent choosing it today. Real estate followed in second place, with 20 percent seeing it as the best long-term investment. Savings accounts and CDs tied with stocks/mutual funds at 19 percent. Bonds trailed at 8 percent. "Investing in gold has gained in popularity in recent years as low interest rates have made traditional savings instruments less attractive, and instability in the stock and real estate markets has undermined the mass appeal of those options," Gallup reports. "Meanwhile, the rising trajectory of the price of gold over the past several years apparently offers more of the returns and stability investors seek." Gold prices are currently trading over $1,660 an ounce, down from peaking around $1,924 an ounce in late 2011 but well above $300 an ounce from just over a decade ago. Weak gross domestic product growth figures and a sluggish jobs market are fueling talk the Federal Reserve will stimulate the economy in a way to encourage investment and hiring that weakens the dollar as a side effect. Such a policy, officially known as quantitative easing but dubbed by critics as printing money out of thin air, would send gold's price rising. Uncertainty in Europe also is likely to push gold higher, as calls for the European Central Bank to simulate the economy there grow as well. European countries have adopted austerity measures such as tax hikes and spending cuts to right their debt-ridden economies, but many feel such harsh fiscal measures aren't working on their own. "If you look at what's happening in Europe, they keep talking about austerity," says Matthew Bishop, a co-author of In Gold We Trust?, according to CNBC. "The long way out of this is we're going to get some inflation and we're going to see gold go from being a specialist investment to being something which the public as a whole starts to buy, and that's when the price will really shoot up." Author: Forrest Jones Source: Moneynews