In my opinion, the current strength of the euro cannot be maintained. A few years ago one of the leading Danish economists wrote an extensive article in which he predicted that Europe is going to experience a decades-long economic malaise along the lines of what we've seen in Japan. And the roots of this malaise will be the same as Japan's -- stagnant population growth, coupled with enormous government pension liabilities.
As strange as this may seem, the porous southern border of the United States is precisely what is going to keep the U.S. from experiencing a similar spiral.
There is 6000 years of recorded history showing that whenever paper currencies get into trouble, the masses run to gold. For the purpose of disclosure, I do classify myself as a "gold bug" but I do not see gold as an investment. I see it as insurance against the major nations of the world engaging in competitive currency devaluations, which we appear to be on the brink of.
We have been through dollar devaluation before, as noted in this thread. I was just a kid during the 1970's, but I do remember that it really blew. Take a look at the percentages of the price increases of gasoline that occured. Think about what would happen today of the price of oil went up over 100% within a relatively short period of time. It took several years until the economy to get back on track, and we didn't have a national debt of over $7 trillion dollars to service then.