Is the major problem with the federal government the fact that it can't get anything done? That's the upshot of a recent poll by Gallup, which asked American investors what their major political concern was. Even more than the federal budget deficit or the unemployment rate, the investors said their biggest worry was "a politically divided federal government."
It hasn't always been this way. When this same question was asked back in September of last year, both the unemployment rate (cited by 83 percent of investors) and the deficit (cited by 79 percent) were of greater concern than the divided government, which was cited by 74 percent of the respondents. While the last of these is pretty much unchanged in the new survey, with 73 percent of the investors calling it a major concern, those worried by the deficit dropped to 66 percent, and those worried by unemployment dropped to 62 percent.
Interestingly enough, one issue that has fallen off in importance for investors is the price of energy. Back in September, 62 percent cited it as something that could affect the investing climate, but in the latest survey - after a month of constantly rising gas prices - only 53 percent now say so.
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