VISTAs not BRICs?

When people were first introduced to emerging markets on a large scale, some of the most promising countries for investors were Brazil, Russia, India, and China – or BRIC nations.

With China looking like it’s topping out, rampant inflation in Brazil, and underperformance in Russia and some could argue India, are BRICs where investors should still be putting their emerging market money? Maybe not, though I would say I still like India of the four.

Interestingly, some analysts are starting to lump South Africa in with the BRICs

Well, I travelled to South Africa a few years ago, and got to sit with a businessman (and VIP subscriber) to talk about the South African economy and why he just sold his business to an Indian company. The S.A. rand was killing exports – plain and simple – and the government wasn’t doing much about it.

The government wasn’t doing much about the infrastructure and power needs, either, or the soaring unemployment. Official statistics had put unemployment at between 16% and 20%, but unofficially that figure could be as high as 40%.

A Happy Story out of Turkey

A bit of good news out of Turkey, as the death toll rises to 239 from the 7.2 earthquake near Van in the east:

A fiance’s love saved 25-year-old teacher Gul Karacoban from being left to die under the rubble of a restaurant she was eating at when a deadly earthquake struck eastern Turkey.

Brought out alive on Monday along with two colleagues, after 18 hours pinned under a mound of concrete and masonry, she was stretchered into an ambulance while paramedics assured her desperate fiance she would be alright.

“All I want is for her to live, I don’t care if she injured or not. It doesn’t matter, I just want her alive,” air force Lieutenant Onur Eryasar told a Reuters photographer before climbing into the ambulance.

Others were saved from that site, too. Read the full article for more lucky stories…

Earthquake in Turkey

Eastern Turkey was rocked by a 7.2-magnitude earthquake today, reports the Associated Press. The Kandilli observatory’s seismography center says the quake could have killed up to 1,000 people.

In Van, the nearest city, 10 buildings fell down. The town of Ercis, which is on the fault line to the north of Van, saw between 25 and 30 buildings collapse.