It’s become widely accepted when talking about emerging economies to focus on the so-called BRIC countries - Brazil, Russia, India and China. But there is a very important region that gets lost in that discussion.

And it’s a region that holds the key to growth opportunities that could eclipse the growth in the BRIC countries.

In fact, this region collectively has a bigger economy than Brazil, Russia or India already. And in terms of growth, it is growing faster than any of these countries. In terms of population, it’s bigger than the U.S. and nearly as populous the EU. It holds 60% of the world’s proven oil reserves and nearly half of its natural gas.

That last clue probably gives it away. I’m talking about the Middle East and North Africa, or MENA.

Among its largest economies are Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

In one of my presentations at Agora Financial’s 10th Annual

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Kazakhstan was once a nation of nomads wandering vast steppes. They herded cattle, goats and camels. On the country’s western edge lies the Caspian Sea. Towns grew up along the shore there, hauling in catches of sturgeon and black caviar.

But otherwise, Kazakhstan was an empty desert. Even in the days of the old Silk Road, traders would skirt Kazakhstan’s southern border rather than try to cross that hell of a desert. It was remote. Desolate. The Soviets used parts of the northeast to test nuclear weapons.

The Aral Sea, site of one of the greatest environmental disasters ever, is in Kazakhstan. A century ago, carp, perch, caviar-bloated sturgeon and much more filled the Aral Sea. Fisherman hauled hundreds of tons of fish per year, fed themselves and loaded trains full of fish headed to Moscow. Then the Communists had some harebrained scheme to use the water for irrigation.

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Idiocracy in action: Congress blocks bill to audit the Fed… No surprise: American loan defaults hit record… Surprise: Could Canadians be next? China takes another “World’s No. 1” from U.S. … Dan Denning, Byron King on recent triumph and tragedy in the oil patch…

Great news: The Federal Reserve will retain its right to operate in secrecy.

“Thank God for Rule 16!”

Late yesterday, the Senate majority put the kibosh on a last-hour provision in the 2010 spending bill that would audit the Fed. Not because it’s a bad idea… but because of the arcane Rule 16, which prohibits policy legislation from being added to spending bills. (The kind of “rule” that’s only evoked when the majority gets uncomfortable.)

“The Federal Reserve will create and disburse trillions of dollars in response to our current financial crisis,” said Sen. Jim DeMint, who spearheaded

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Take a minute, close your eyes, and think back to when you were in the 7th grade. At some point your geography or history teacher was probably talking to you about Marco Polo and something called the Silk Road. The Silk Road, actually a network of roads and sea routes connecting China to the Mediterranean, and ultimately to Europe, was a conduit for trade until the 15th century. Gold and silver were carried eastward to China and in return traders going back west carried something that was, pound for pound, far more valuable than even gold. They carried what was for thousands of years one of China’s major exports, natural silk, the product of a lowly caterpillar.

The reason for silk’s hold on people is, of course, its unique properties. A smooth and luxurious fiber, it can be dyed and printed in striking bright colors. It

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Ukraine and Russia are at it again. This time, it’s turned especially nasty, as Russia cut off natural gas supplies to a host of European countries. Tired of relying on Russia, the EU will again look for alternatives. Its eyes will wander to Turkmenistan.

Back in October, while the world was busy putting out the fires of a financial crisis that still burns, little-thought-of Turkmenistan made a bombshell of an announcement. It seemed to gather little notice at the time. But it could become much more important as the Russian-Ukraine dynamic gets worse.

Gaffney, Cline and Associates, a British consulting firm, completed an audit of Turkmenistan’s Yoloten-Osman natural gas deposits. Based on GCA’s first results, the fields have a minimum of 4 trillion cubic meters of gas… and as much as 14 trillion cubic meters of gas, a truly staggering sum. The announcement put Yoloten-Osman among the four or five largest natural

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The Asian Development Bank is extending 700 million U.S. dollars to Kazakhstan to help build a "new Silk Road" that will transform the country's economy.The "Central Asian Regional Economic Cooperation Transport Corridor I" will run 2,715 kilometers, from the city of Khorgos on Kazakhstan's border with China to the western border with RussiaThis new silk road will boost trade between Beijing and Brussels, and create extraordinary economic opportunities for the people of Kazakhstan and their neighbors. The improved road will increase travel speed, and reducing freight transport costs by 50 %.The new road, spanning the world's largest landlocked country, is expected to be comparably transformative by 2020, the road is expected to increase domestic product in Kazakhstan, and to increase the GDP of neighboring Central Asian countries.The overall investment for the road project is approximately 6.7 billion dollars. Other financiers behind the ...

The Asian Development Bank is extending 700 million U.S. dollars to Kazakhstan to help build a "new Silk Road" that will transform the country's economy.The "Central Asian Regional Economic Cooperation Transport Corridor I" will run 2,715 kilometers, from the city of Khorgos on Kazakhstan's border with China to the western border with RussiaThis new silk road will boost trade between Beijing and Brussels, and create extraordinary economic opportunities for the people of Kazakhstan and their neighbors. The improved road will increase travel speed, and reducing freight transport costs by 50 %.The new road, spanning the world's largest landlocked country, is expected to be comparably transformative by 2020, the road is expected to increase domestic product in Kazakhstan, and to increase the GDP of neighboring Central Asian countries.The overall investment for the road project is approximately 6.7 billion dollars. Other financiers behind the ...

The Asian Development Bank is extending 700 million U.S. dollars to Kazakhstan to help build a "new Silk Road" that will transform the country's economy.The "Central Asian Regional Economic Cooperation Transport Corridor I" will run 2,715 kilometers, from the city of Khorgos on Kazakhstan's border with China to the western border with RussiaThis new silk road will boost trade between Beijing and Brussels, and create extraordinary economic opportunities for the people of Kazakhstan and their neighbors. The improved road will increase travel speed, and reducing freight transport costs by 50 %.The new road, spanning the world's largest landlocked country, is expected to be comparably transformative by 2020, the road is expected to increase domestic product in Kazakhstan, and to increase the GDP of neighboring Central Asian countries.The overall investment for the road project is approximately 6.7 billion dollars. Other financiers behind the ...