BRICS plus

The US has created its own worst nightmare

Between them, the 5 BRICS nations include roughly 40% of the world’s population:

The five BRICS nations also now make up 31.5% of global GDP on a Purchasing Power Parity basis, while the G7 nations make up only 30%. It is arguably the world’s largest trading bloc.

Impressive as all that is, it may only be the beginning. At least nineteen nations have submitted applications to join BRICS at its next meeting in June, thanks to tireless efforts of the BRICS chief recruiter, the United States of America.

Though its not easy to get the exact list - it keeps changing - this is a close approximation:

If all of the above countries are accepted into BRICS membership, it would add more than 1.6 billion new people to the alliance, for a total of 4.8 million people.

Stated differently, by the end of June, BRICS+ could represent 60% of the world’s population within one alliance.

Silk Road estimates that, by 2030, BRICS+ will represent 50 percent of global GDP.

BRICS+ will likely include most of the major OPEC players: Russia, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Iran, Nigeria, Venezuela and Mexico. I suspect most of the remaining OPEC nations - particularly Iraq - will eventually join BRICS+ just to be sure to be kept in the loop.

Here are the world’s top ten resource-rich nations, courtesy of Statista:

BRICS+ will include six of the ten most resource-rich countries of the world.

Afghanistan isn’t on that list. Decades of war have prevented that country from exploiting its immense mineral wealth. But we can be sure that in years to come China will help Afghanistan secure its proper place in the Resources Top Ten - for a price.

Five years ago, I think it would have been fair to call the BRICS nations “a non-aligned bloc.” Today, the BRICS nations are in danger of becoming an anti-US coalition.

While only some of the wannabe BRICS+ nations are actively antagonistic towards the United States, I suspect all of the nations wanting to join BRICS see membership in the alliance as an insurance policy against being bullied by the United States.

Accordingly, we can expect the BRICS+ nations to de-dollarize as much as possible. The more the BRICS+ nations de-dollarize their trade, the less reason there is for them to hold significant reserves of US dollars. Both of which will be a drop-kick to the crotch for the US dollar.

American and European sanctions against Russia have clearly boomeranged. How much worse will it be if BRICS+ alliance imposes tit-for-tat countersanctions in response to any US attempt to sanction a BRICS+ member?

I wonder how will the American public feel when they realize that the world’s newest trading super-bloc is headed by Russia and China - the two nations the Biden administration has worked ceaselessly to turn into America’s mortal enemies.

As for the Europeans, the presence of Joe Biden in the White House somehow reminds me of an old Irish prayer:

Dear God

Please let me die like Grandpa,

Peacefully in my sleep -

Not screaming in terror,

Like the passengers in the car with him.