The hottest multilateral club doesn't include the US

By Darian Woods,

Adrian Ma, Corey Bridges, Kate Concannon

Published July 29, 2025 at 9:23 AM EDT

BRICS is an economic alliance of countries that includes Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa and several other nations. They met earlier this month to discuss everything from international law to global health. President Trump, however, is not a fan of BRICS and threatened members with increased tariffs.

So why has this alliance generated so much animosity from the President? Today on the show, we talk to the economist who coined the term "BRICs" about the origins of the group and why the international economic organizations have been western dominated for so long.

Related episodes:

China's trade war perspective

Is the US pushing countries towards China?

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Darian Woods

Darian Woods is a reporter and producer for The Indicator from Planet Money. He blends economics, journalism, and an ear for audio to tell stories that explain the global economy. He's reported on the time the world got together and solved a climate crisis, vaccine intellectual property explained through cake baking, and how Kit Kat bars reveal hidden economic forces.

See stories by Darian Woods

Adrian Ma

Adrian Ma covers work, money and other "business-ish" for NPR's daily economics podcast The Indicator from Planet Money.

Corey Bridges

Corey Bridges is an assistant producer at NPR's daily economics podcast, The Indicator from Planet Money. Bridges enjoys covering stories ranging from public policy to the economics of sports. At The Indicator, he has worked on stories about how certain environmental regulations can impede climate progress and others about how college athletes are taking advantage of their name, image and likeness.

Kate Concannon

Kate Concannon is the Supervising Senior Editor at The Indicator from Planet Money. She leads this small, collaborative team of hosts, reporters and producers in making sense of crucial, but often complex and confusing, economic news in just 10 minutes a day.