Jim O’Neill, the former chief economist at Goldman Sachs who gained fame for coining the acronym “BRIC,” spoke to the Financial Times about the Aug. 22-23 BRICS summit. O’Neill is now Baron O’Neill of Gatley, a member of the House of Lords, and a Senior Adviser at Chatham House, the premier British foreign policy think tank.
The BRICS, O’Neill pontificated, “never achieved anything since they first started meeting.” As for the discussion of alternatives to the dollar, the FT wrote: “`It’s just ridiculous,’ he [O’Neill] said in response to calls for a `trading currency’ from Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and other politicians from the bloc. `They’re going to create a BRICS central bank? How would you do that? It’s embarrassing almost.’”
