Video: BRIC Fantasies and Reality

We all know that the BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India, and China) grouping of emerging economies is a compelling concept, but the hype is just getting completely disproportionate to the economic and geopolitical reality.  This video segment from Al Jazeera English is one example, if you can withstand the halting delivery of the host or the hyperactive editing.  BRIC is just one of those things that so many people wish to project their ideas upon, especially the fantasies of the end of American empire (which of course may be coming, don’t get me wrong), while no one can speak with much authority about what the growth of these economies will mean for global politics.  Already we are suffering from considerable delusions of the myth that these countries hold some kind of political alliance, when in fact they are as often working against each other (especially the issue of China’s artificially low currency).  Russia is a significant outlier furthermore as a pure commodity play, while India and Brazil and the real democracies looking for UN reform that Russia and China are not interested in.  And so on and so on.