Last month's summit of the BRIC countries, Brazil, Russia, India, China, now renamed BRICS with the addition of South Africa, announced with great fanfare that the group was determined to punch its new muscle on the world economic stage and no longer to be pushed around by the tired old powers. But you have to ask if it was worth the leaders making the long trek to China.

The BRICS account for 40 percent of the world population (though only 24 percent of global GDP), and have a legitimate complaint that the world has hitherto been dominated by a cozy club of rich countries with about 10 percent of the world's population. The communique called for "a comprehensive reform" of the United Nations, including the Security Council, "with a view to making it more effective, efficient and representative" so that it can meet growing global challenges.

One key challenge is the fragile state of the global economy, finely imbalanced with a whole range of potential disturbances, from current account and huge budget deficits in the United States and other Western countries, to the rising price of oil and other commodities. Problems are exacerbated by unhealthy dependence on the U.S. dollar as the world's effective reserve currency, something that Beijing has increasingly grumbled about with its huge but vulnerable $3 trillion pot of foreign exchange reserves.