Yesterday I bought IShares Gold Trust (IAU) an amount equal to about 7% of my portfolio. It is the first time in my 40 years of investing I've ever invested in gold. The reason? As an American investor, I fear that the dollar is going to fall precipitously.

I am very scared for the American economy. I own some foreign stock, considered moving some of my cash into a foreign currency (but which one? Switzerland? Japan? These looked most favorable, but I don't know enough to be confident. I finally decided that gold is the safest way to escape the fall of the dollar.