My next update has to do with something called the BRICS, and I want to make sure you all are
familiar with the BRICS because you're going to become more familiar in the years ahead. And it
would be good to know it sooner rather than later. First of all, what are the initials? B-R-I-C-S
and here's what it stands for: Brazil, Russia, India, China and the S is for South Africa.
Those five countries I want to talk to you about because they're having meetings. They've been
doing that for years. They're getting their act together. They've been moving quite well along,
and they are now a very powerful force. And that's why you need to know about them. And
to see why they're so powerful, I'm going to tell you a little bit about what they're doing now. All
right let's begin. These five countries together have a population of 3.23 billion people. That's
just shy of half of the people on this planet. So, let me be clear with you. Those five countries
have ten times the population of the United States. We have 325 million. Those five countries:
3.23 billion. Do the arithmetic. This is an enormous part of this planet, much bigger than the
United States. The total GDP, the total output of goods and services by these five BRICS countries:
23 trillion. That's interesting because that's a bigger economic footprint than the United States.
So, let me do it again. Those five countries together produce a quantity of goods and
services per year larger than that of the United States, and we're not done.
In recent years, 50 percent of the economic growth achieved in this world was achieved in
those five countries and by those five countries. They are the engine of the world economy in a way
that was once said of Western Europe, North America and Japan. The engine, the powerhouse,
the growth mobile, all of that- that's moved friends and it's moved in large part to the BRICS.
And now an example of the importance that this alliance, this coalition, this block
of countries referring to themselves often as emerging economies.
Every one of them disagrees with the United States about the war in Ukraine. Every one of them. Every
one of them continues to trade with Russia. No sanctions against Russia, none. In fact,
the opposite. Many of these countries are now buying much more from Russia replacing the west
(the United States, Western Europe and Japan) as the major customers to whom Russia looks. That
of course builds and strengthens the solidarity of the BRICS. They're also developing their own
international currency, their own international payments system to get around the blocking that
the United States sanctions have imposed on Russia and people who trade with Russia. They are finding
the solution by going around, by developing their own alternative system. Watch out. This
is part of the decline of U.S. capitalism of the U.S. empire and of the subordinate position of
Europe and Japan in relationship to that empire. The BRICS is the up and comer important to see.