No B and R in BRIC

On December 4, The Financial Times printed a comment by John Lloyd and Alex Turkeltaub titled “India and China are the only real Brics in the wall” (subscription required) arguing that “while the rise of China and India represents a real shift in the power balance, Russia and Brazil are marginal economies propped up by high commodity prices.” BRIC is the abbreviation for the four large emerging economies Brazil, Russia, India and China. Ironically, the next day, the already red-hot Russian stock market reached a new all-time high in spite of the negative publicity surrounding the poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko.