Maybe. Its hard to be sure when autocratic countries lie about their economic data.
edit: for those two with their "everybody lies and are awful" argument (one of the oldest and most beloved Russian tactics whataboutism). You will properly not get it if you don't already understand it - but issues with accuracy has nothing to with doctoring all your numbers to keep the gravy train going. Transparent liberal countries can have issues too, but compared to authoritarian ones the issues a trivial.
It might still happen, but there's a high chance that it will come to light sooner rather than later. Whistle-blowers don't have to fear the same repercussions as in autocratic states.
Its amazing that you parot that nonsence while Assange rots in prison and Snowden is hiding for a full decade.
Those that fire "whataboutism cannon" arguments etc. are equally bad. Nobody is honest (or rational) here, lets not pretend otherwise, even little kids understand better. It is what it is, its human nature I guess. I don't have a solution, except that you have to accept and adapt to that sort of game, nothing more or less, especially not thinking you have some sort of moral higher ground.
US Inflation data is famously understated, and the number of methodology changes we've had in the last year should alarm everyone. We actually saw disinflation in healthcare insurance costs at one point last year, after one particularly criminal adjustment in the calculation by the BLS caused the lowest negative print in decades.
The EIA reports since Biden have also been a disaster, to the point where they are "vowing" to work on the accuracy[1]. I highlight this one in particular because of Biden's catastrophic mishandling of the Saudis and the de-facto war on oil his administration is leading.
---
[1] https://oilprice.com/Energy/Energy-General/The-EIA-Vows-To-I...
Is "the BRICS" something besides a joint meeting that happens every now and then? What's the point in joining a joint meeting that happens every now and then?
The G7 isn't very important, neither is BRICS.
There's just a lot of Americans that want to see America fail because other people have different views than them.
Doomer feelings are growing more prevalent as out population becomes more divided and our monetary situation grows worse.
Many americans feel that our "American Empire" that dominated world politics is losing ground fast and there is a need to cope by being "smart" and swearing you know how it will happen.
Its pure copium, but it feels good to cope and feel an illusion of control.
TL;DR: its a need for control in worsening times, not hatred, that drives the doomer theories of an American collapse.
I'm not a geopolitical expert by any means, but if there was a time to make a move against the US, this would be it for sure.
I mean, by the looks of it, the Western doesn't "feel" that hopeful. Just look at the US alone:
- Patriotism is on an all time low (per NYT);
- Social divide is on an all time high;
- Highest inflation in +30 years;
- Afghanistan's debacle;
- Proxy war with Russia got the American people basically divided between spending that money at home and striking a deal between RU & UA. vs helping Ukraine defeating Russia;
- US culture is getting a pushback from other countries (mainly in the African continent) that think the US is trying to impose their morals upon them (it's not that far fetched if you think about it). This is affecting US relations with those countries to the extent that they prefer to align with US "frenemies" instead of the US per se;
- US foreign policies pushing together countries that were/are still enemies, bringing forward the old saying `the enemy of my enemy is my "friend"`.
This decade will be really interesting, to say the least.
- We'll be basically energy independent in 10 years
- Manufacturing is being decentralized and re-shored
- Our domination in tech is not slowing
- Despite the news, violent crimes are near all-time lows
- Education is at an all time high
- Low income wages are at recent-history high
- Working hours are declining, PTO is going up
- Gay rights are at an all time high
- Turns out, Russia isn't much of a threat
- etc.
You see what you want to see. It's a good idea to at least try to see things from the positive and negative sides.
What you stated is interesting since you have to dig deeper to look for these news and even doing that, you'll have the majority of people disagreeing with you. Reality is 99% of the world atm is only looking the bad things and forming their conclusions based on that. We're literally watching the power dynamics being "shuffle" and the general perception of the US being shifted right before our eyes. These news have embolden part of the world to take action and move against the US (which is scary if you think about it since the ramifications will affect everyone) and we can say it makes sense since no country can fight all fronts at once (US and Africa, US vs EMEA, US vs China/Russia, etc..).
I'm hopeful things will get better and the western world will get its "things" together.
People and countries collaborate on things all the time, not necessarily because of a consultative organization they happen to be in.
It's more likely that those countries, they collaborate with each other "despite BRICS", or "despite G7" that because of it.
> BRICS Development Bank
But the same countries are also part of the International Monetary Fund, a kind-of-bank that is more or less the "G7 Bank" (G7 countries usually hold large ammounts of XDR votes in the IMF) and much more important.
The BRICS's attempt to overtake the US is due to the race to incompetence at the top. For them, to compete with the likes of China, they're copying the worst parts of China or the rest of the other countries part of the BRICS.
Oh dear.
Never mind that none of these nations, particularly the export-driven ones, can long survive economically without access to Western markets.
They're welcome to try and form a poorer, less coordinated market of antagonistic lesser economies who's sole defining feature is "we aren't competent or unified enough to compete with the West and that threatens our generally corrupt and authoritarian political classes!" If there's any shitshow it'll be watching it tear itself apart, presumably after Ray Dalio writes a best-selling book about how the decadent West is in decline and BRICS is inevitably the future.
India has enormous challenges of its own, one of them being that their export industry is weak outside pharmaceutical products. They also are not in the best of terms with China, especially on border disputes, and their GDP per capita is the lowest by far among BRICS.
I'm honestly surprised when anyone suggests that India may be put in the same group as China. Other than population and WMD, the gap is unlikely to be closed in the next three decades.
That is definitely 100% untrue, I have enough empirical evidence that there are no practical solid grounds for that claim.
> Saudi Arabia and Iran HATE each other
They've recently reestablished political relations, did they? Don't know much about their day-to-day feelings, but there is a clear political will towards predictable coexistence.
The countries that fight against themselves in Yemen right now? Shining example of cooperation.
Sure, they aren't the flag waving (well, not American flags anyways) patriots we see on the other side. Those guys live in a make believe place that will never come back. The left however has won bigger prizes - not just American institutions but globally across Europe, parts of Asia, and South America. So yes, criticizing this machine is an afront on what's right according to hegemonic power.
Not with that attitude.
Saudi Arabia and Iran will join the BRICS, Argentina is applying, and they have all claimed they will stop using US dollars.
China is neocolonizing Africa with its Belt and Road initiative.
We are headed towards a shitshow.