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Few financial concepts have caught on as fast as "BRICs," which stands for Brazil, Russia, India and China, the "Big Four," rapid-growth economies on earth at present. Goldman Sachs economist Jim O'Neill coined the phrase back in 2003, and it nowadays has come into widespread use as a symbol of a shift in worldwide economic power away from the developed G7 economies on the way to the developing world.

By dint of their sheer size and population — and their collective conclusion to hold their own particular brand of capitalism — BRICs are the economic way forward for the world. Together, the BRICs cover above 25% of the world's land mass and 40% of the world's population. And thanks to their predicted quick growth by 2050, the BRICs might cover the combined economies of the present richest countries of the world. China along with India will become the main global suppliers of manufactured goods as well as services. Brazil along with Russia will be the world's leading suppliers of commodities. The BRICs in the present day already account for the combined GDP of $15.435 trillion dollars on the purchasing power basis. By that measure, they are already together larger than the United States.

Here is what Goldman Sachs needed to disclose in its original statement "Dreaming with BRICS: The Path to 2050," published in 2003.

* China's economy will surpass Germany in the following few years, Japan by 2015, and also the United States by 2041.

* India's growth rate would be the highest — not China's — and it'll overtake Japan (today the world's second-largest economy) by 2032.

* BRICs' currencies could go up in price by 300% over the following 50 years, given that a big tailwind for investors in BRIC assets.

* Taken together, the BRICs may be better than the America and the developed economies of Europe within 40 years.

* By 2025, BRICs will produce another 200 million individuals with incomes above $15,000 into the world's economy. That is match to collective populations of Germany, France and also the United Kingdom.

If anything, Goldman Sachs is becoming more bullish on the BRICs because it published its first report. The size of China's economy overtook Germany's economy in 2008, a year earlier than expected, but will overtake Japan in 2010. Goldman Sachs now believes of the fact that Chinese economy will overtake the America by 2027. And with India accounting for 10 of the thirty fastest-growing urban areas on the earth and 700 million people moving to cities before 2050, its influence on the world economy can be bigger and quicker than implied in 2003.

The BRIC nations have stepped onto the world economic phase which has a newfound confidence. Shanghai hosting the World's Expo in 2010 highlights its ambition to be a world economic hub by 2020 — investing twice what rival Beijing did when hosting the 2008 Olympics. Brazil is going to go on board on its own infrastructure growth because it is hosting both the World Cup in 2014 and also the Olympics in 2016. Two of the world's leading five on the Forbes Rich list are from India. (Number one is from Mexico.) In 2010, Moscow has the second-highest number of billionaires in the world after New York City.

Here's why it's possible expect the BRICs' roll to carry on. First, for the first time in current memory, BRICs are rising not via borrowing, but through investing. China has the world's highest savings rate. Brazil and Russia are sitting on huge foreign currency reserves, thanks to windfalls from oil profits. Even freewheeling Brazil is showing heretofore unseen discipline by running a fiscal surplus.

Second, high commodity prices have put more money in BRICs' pockets than ever before. Which means much less danger of the financial meltdown such as ones Brazil and Russia had during the 1980s and 1990s.

Lastly, higher credit rankings mean that BRICs today can issue debts in their currencies. A decade following defaulting, Russia has a higher credit rating than the European Union economies of Greece and Portugal. The result? More balanced economic increase and financing of investment that both rely on the whims of foreign investors.

Here's a reality check though. Although their recent high profile, BRICs have to getting a lot of things right to duplicate the success of Japan, Germany and South Korea. Potential problems contain China's oppressive regime, India's choking bureaucracy, Brazil's history of policy flip-flops and Russia's gangster capitalism.

So yes, the BRIC economies are as a group already approximately 15% better than the United States. However take away the economic affirmative action of buying power parity, and look at wealth in real terms, as well as the U.S. GDP ($14 trillion) is almost 40% better than all 4 BRICs combined ($8.6 trillion). Using actual GDP, the typical United states is almost fifteen times richer than her or his BRIC counterpart. In fact, there are 2.6 billion total individuals in the BRICs with only 308 million Individuals. And in spite of the nation's billionaires, more
than 200 million Indians survive lower than $2 a day.

And historical prediction can be described as mug's game. The year 1900 had its own version of BRICs: Argentina, Russia, Austria-Hungary and the United States were the fastest-growing economies in the world. Investors were clamoring to purchase Russian railroad bonds for a similar reasons that they're investing in Chinese solar stocks in the present day. What did the world look like in 1950? 2 world wars and a number of other revolutions later, Austria-Hungary and Russia did not even exist; Argentina went from economic bull to basket case, as well as the United States was a world superpower, responsible for 50% of the world's economic production.

Cautionary tales notwithstanding, BRIC nations at present offer some of the most exciting investment decision opportunities in the earth. You can actually earn more money in one month investing in BRIC stocks than what you can grind out in S&P over three years. Brazil's stock market, the Bovespa, has gone from about 9,000 in September 2002 to over 70,000 in May 2008. Savvy investors in Russia made just above 60 times their money between the meltdown in September 1998 and the market's peak in May 2007.

And today, it is simpler than ever to buy BRICs. Among companies listed on the New York Stock Exchange, 34 are Brazilian, six are Russian, eight are Indian and 16 are Chinese. And that doesn't include technology firms which can be listed on the Nasdaq. One can find a few BRIC exchange-traded fund as well — iShares MSCI BRIC Index (BKF) and SPDR BRIC 40 (BIK).

Purchasing BRICs can offer you the most fascinating and moneymaking ways to take a position over the coming decades.

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Tags: Brazil's Stock Market, BRIC, Forbes Rich, Goldman Sachs