Taming The Lion

Last month I discussed the "BRIC" countries and what makes that group of the four leading emerging economies (Brazil, Russia, India and China) so important to today's world economy. I also touched on the admission of South Africa, despite its relatively small size, to the group in 2010 to create "BRICS". Since completing that piece, I attended a dinner hosted by Barclays Wealth at which Henk Potts, the bank's global investment strategy director and one its best-known personalities, was speaking. Confidently I prepared some deeply cerebral, meaningful questions on BRICS hoping that his responses would provide the basis for this month's column. And so it did – but not in the way I had anticipated.