[dragonwriter]

> > The whole point of currency is short-term

> Not if you're saving for retirement or your kid's college fund.

No, even there: it's to be the short-term stable thing you trade other stuff (for most people, labor) for and then use to buy the productive asset you invest for those purpose. It's an important part of the process, just not the final vehicle.

It is very much not for direct use as the final vehicle for those purposes itself, because the attributes which make something good as a long-term investment are very different than those that make it good as currency. (Savings accounts, which still are only good for fairly short-term reserves and not the purposes you lay out, aren't the same as raw currency.)