rooman Wrote:
anyone know the stats for the odds on bike-more-friendly countries lik
Holland & Belgium.....are they best practice that the rest of the U
centric speaking world choses to ignore , for oil's sake.....

that is the bottom line to me..Oil and Oil standard ( once the Gol
Standard) but since that was dropped its the oil standard as oi
contracts are in the main written in USD and you need USD to buy them
so the US economy and treasury thrives on increased oil prices, that
why the US is so up the nose of France and Russia as Iran and Ira
started to sell oil for Euros...the Yanks were threatened, the Oi
standard they had set was threatened and hence Saddam had to go...an
the French and Russian contracts with Iraq cancelled......not fo
WMD.... not for the **** he (Saddam) dished out to his own people, bu
for the OIL STANDARD and the USD...meanwhile we mere cyclists i
country's that have a high preponderance of oil dependancy fo
transport are at the mercy of the Oil agenda...there will really neve
be serious heed paid to cycling and its benefits beyond token politica
necessity from time to time whilst we demand Oil as we do...th
Netherlands and Belgium arent so worried and any way the Netherland
has Royal Dutch Shell, so the rest of the world is paying them to rid
bikes...the ultimate irony...

well thats MHO anyway...

* here endeth lesson #2 for tonight, brethren*

Ha! stick to cycling topics... despite the conspiracy theories, hig
oil prices are bad for the US economy, despite contracts bein
exchanged in USD. USD has fallen a long way from its highs a few year
ago, making oil relatively cheaper for non-US consumers. The currenc
market is plenty liquid enough for Europeans to swap euros for dollar
and dollars for oil. The way the USD has gone over the past few year
has meant the Belgians had to exchange fewer euros for the same numbe
of USD.

Ritch

PS. Royal Dutch Shell was just transferred out of MSCI-Europe index an
into the UK - so it's more of a UK company (at least in its financia
life

--
ritcho