PARIS, France - When Goldman Sachs economist Jim O’Neill came up with the BRICs concept in 2001, it served as shorthand for a group of economies that deserved special attention even if they weren’t quite ready to join South Korea and Mexico as new entrants to the OECD group of developed economies.
But in one important sense, it represented pure concoction: Except that they were big and interesting, these countries had almost nothing whatsoever in common.
