Comments on: BRICs in charts

By: Razib Khan

Razib Khan — Tue, 07 Dec 2010 04:10:12 +0000

hema, most to least stable IMO

brazil > india > china >> russia

i think there’s a big gap between china and russia. mostly cuz russia is a petro-state and that creates all sorts of problems.

By: Hema

Hema — Tue, 07 Dec 2010 02:53:37 +0000

Razib – What about political systems and stability? Sure they don’t come on a chart but does it mean they don’t belong in an analysis of cooperation in BRIC group. A certain level of political and social stability is required for sustainable economic cooperation, I feel. Do you feel the prospects are bright in that regard?

By: Randy McDonald

Randy McDonald — Tue, 07 Dec 2010 02:34:34 +0000

@ Razib: The thesis’ suggestion that these rising powers would collaborate with each other–more that this collaboration would be particularly unusual and noteworthy–is what gets me.

By: Wade Nichols

Wade Nichols — Mon, 06 Dec 2010 19:56:04 +0000

but the rationale for a substantive BRIC alliance has always escaped me.
.
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i thought it was a pure economic descriptor, not a hint of any ‘alliance.’

I think the answer is even simpler than that – “BRICs” is just a simple term/concept that the investment banks came up with in order to sell emerging markets products to their clients.

By: ohwilleke

ohwilleke — Mon, 06 Dec 2010 17:31:51 +0000

The bellwether Subsaharan African economies would be Nigeria and South Africa – Nigeria because of its immense population, South Africa because of its stronger industrial and mining economy base.

By: Tweets that mention BRICs in charts | Gene Expression | Discover Magazine -- Topsy.com

Mon, 06 Dec 2010 11:12:45 +0000

[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Marco Romano-Silva, Science Brain. Science Brain said: BRICs in charts http://bit.ly/fih5N6 [...]

By: Razib Khan

Razib Khan — Mon, 06 Dec 2010 02:14:47 +0000

but the rationale for a substantive BRIC alliance has always escaped me.

i thought it was a pure economic descriptor, not a hint of any ‘alliance.’ more precisely it might allude to lateral interactions across the BRICs which don’t involve big established economic superpowers like the USA. e.g., chinese investment in brazilian mines.

By: Randy McDonald

Randy McDonald — Mon, 06 Dec 2010 02:08:19 +0000

“BRIC’ works well enough to capture a paradigm–a relative shift of economic dynamism from relatively small high-income countries to relatively much larger middle-income countries, all embedded in a globalized economy–but the rationale for a substantive BRIC alliance has always escaped me. Leaving aside the very different cultural, economic, political, et cetera orientations and concerns of these three countries, and the non-complementarities of some countries’ exports with others, China has had significant conflict with Russia and even more significant conflict with India in the recent past.

By: Razib Khan

Razib Khan — Mon, 06 Dec 2010 01:49:43 +0000

Some of the data appears to be wrong. According to the CIA world factbook (https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/), India’s life expectancy is 66.46 higher than the world average of 66.12 years and higher than Russia which is 66.16 years.

don’t be dumb. different organizations will give different numbers based on how they calculated the value (life expec., fertility, etc.). most of these values aren’t as precise as 66.12 and what not, so they should be taken with a grain of salt. the key is to not rely too heavily on one value, and do comparisons using the same source when possible (since hopefully the errors are systematic and so effect all nations equally, though in this case that’s not true if the rank order shifts).

By: BigOil

BigOil — Mon, 06 Dec 2010 01:21:12 +0000

Some of the data appears to be wrong. According to the CIA world factbook (https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/), India’s life expectancy is 66.46 higher than the world average of 66.12 years and higher than Russia which is 66.16 years.

By: Tweets that mention BRICs in charts | Gene Expression | Discover Magazine -- Topsy.com

Mon, 06 Dec 2010 00:49:34 +0000

[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Ron Simon, Science News and Marcelo Delnero, Alenka Urbancic. Alenka Urbancic said: BRICs in charts | Gene Expression http://bit.ly/evqLxB [...]

By: Tom Bri

Tom Bri — Mon, 06 Dec 2010 00:33:33 +0000

Capitalism presupposes cooperation. If the BRICs become more capitalist, they will cooperate more economically, amongst themselves and with other countries. Whether they form a block and cooperate politically is a very different question. Political events are much more the results of individual leaders’ personalities.

The US or Europe could, with a mite of political foresight, prevent any such gang from forming, simply by including any or all of these countries into existing blocks. The writer presupposes too much.