The Euro cannot be ignored in discussions about currency.
Agreed. I think people look at investments as "buy and hold" as worked during the bull run of the stock market. Gold is a very good fall-back investment while government fiat currency is in flux, but not one to just brainlessly “buy and hold”.
Folks are leaning, or will learn, that stocks aren’t a good investment for brainless buy and hold strategies either. Most folks are not aware that stocks have limited growth (capital gains) cycles that can last in the range of 15 years.