Gold rush: Record number of Americans buying gold as hedge against heavily indebted government, market flux

(Freedom.news) Tumultuous times on Wall Street, coupled with the U.S. government’s massive (and growing) debt, led record numbers of Americans to purchase gold bars and gold coins over the summer.

As reported by CNN/Money, demand for gold increased 207 percent during the third quarter of this year, according to the World Gold Council. The skyrocketing level of interest in gold investment has not been “seen since the global financial crisis” of 2008, said the organization.

Statistics from the U.S. Mint support that claim. The Mint reports that Gold Eagle coin sales have surged to nearly 400,000 ounces last quarter – the highest level in five years.

Gold-market experts say that Americans’ newfound appetite for gold rests on two major factors: prices were looking relatively cheap and U.S. financial markets were going wild.

In July gold prices declined to under $1,100 an ounce for the first time in five years. That may have triggered a great deal of the new interest, CNN/Money reported.

“People were bargain shopping. There’s no question about it,” Bob Alderman, head of global wealth management at Gold Bullion International, told the network.

Then, on Aug. 24, the Dow plunged an unprecedented 1,000 points, which signaled just how nervous investors really were, as reported by Collapse.news.

“It’s directly linked to the turmoil we had in August. When the markets are in a really bad mood, gold is in favor,” said Axel Merk, founder of Merk Investments, a firm that specializes in currencies and gold.

Further disarray on Wall Street was fed by China’s economic problems as well as fears that the Federal Reserve had trapped itself into an endless cycle of zero-percent interest rates.

“Investors were getting spooked and gold is the play there,” noted Tim Courtney, chief investment officer at Exencial Wealth Advisors.

Americans expressed the largest interest in gold; globally, demand was only up 33 percent, though in Mexico and Canada demand rose by about 42 percent.

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