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The BRICS summit is scheduled to take place Aug. 22-24 in Johannesburg, South Africa with member nations Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. Together, these nations account for 16 percent of international trade, a substantial portion of which is conducted in U.S. dollars. These countries want to decrease their dependence on the dominant U.S. dollar by promoting the wider adoption of their own national currencies in international trade.
Straight Arrow News contributor Larry Lindsey argues that the BRICS summit will pass without substantial changes, and, despite the U.S. dollar’s decline, the greenback will maintain its status as the leading global currency.
If you read all those stories that come on the login page for your search engine, you’ve doubtless seen a conspiracy theory that the dollar and the world financial system is going to face a major challenge on August 23. The stories go that it will be a day like no other.
Well, what’s going to happen on August 23 that causes all this angst? In fact, what it is is the 15th meeting of the BRICS head of state. Now, if you haven’t heard of BRICS, it stands for Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa. They’re kind of the emerging market economies, or the larger emerging market economies, and they get together to discuss common problems, and they’ll be meeting in Johannesburg, South Africa, on August 23.
The topic is to find alternatives to the dollar, hence all the nervousness and conspiracy theories. Now, the BRICS are anti-colonial, anti-imperial, and are at least skeptical about the United States.
