Some people, for reasons I'm not entirely clear on, are rooting against the US.

I sort of get it you're from Iran or Russia or China, but I don't know why people from Europe, especially Western Europe, or even Americans themselves are doing this.

I don't particularly love the US but I like the alternatives even less.

And every time we talk about this sort of stuff, people immediately think, "ah! the BRICS, that'll teach them".

The first thing we should remember is that the BRICS is nothing but an economic union.

Nothing else. And BRICS puts together countries that are totally different. With totally different economies. There's no cultural or political connection.

The acronym was invented a while back and it initially included Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. And now other countries want to join.

But already, when you look at the names over there, a few red flags should immediately go up. First, India and China.

India and China absolutely can't stand one another. They have daily border disputes, sometimes violent ones. The only thing they have in common is they're both anti-West. 

And then Argentina, and Brazil. In the same room. How long can an agreement between cats and dogs last?

The second issue is BRICS is a made up concept. It's literally just a term that a guy at Goldman Sachs threw in a conversation a while back. It caught on, and they build some sort of fake economic union around it.

The key question, as ever, is who runs it.

Russia is beating the drums for BRICS at the moment but that's just because it's being ostracized by the west. And if Russia and China are in the same room, Russia isn't in charge.

And China has its own problems too, chief among which is the fact that it's losing people. It's no longer the world's largest country by population, and the projections aren't great.

And then there's Saudi Arabia, which isn't even a country. Some people may not know this but the 'Saudi' part in the name Saudi Arabia stands for 'Saud'. It's a family. It's literally a family that owns a country.

Supersized and glorified and simplified, but Saudi Arabia is basically what happens when a family with vast resources form a country in a land that (back then) was not particularly interesting to anyone.

Beats me, anyway.

I'm currently living in a country that depends on everyone. Is in bed with everyone.

Takes funds and grants and investments from everyone and anyone.

And when you depend on everyone, it's the same as depending on no one.