Back in February 2013, 12 years after coining the term BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India and China) as an acronym for the world’s strongest source of emerging market growth, Goldman’s Jim O’Neill retired, but not before some very (traditionally) optimistic words of parting, namely that there is “clear evidence things are doing better economically.”

This is what Goldman said in his retirement announcement:

Jim is an influential economist and thought leader, and is regarded as an expert in the world’s foreign exchange and bond markets. Importantly, he has identified revolutionary economic trends, defining the concept of the BRICs which has become synonymous with the emergence of Brazil, Russia, India and China as growth opportunities of the future. Jim’s BRIC thesis has challenged conventional thinking about emerging markets and, as a result, has had a significant economic and social impact.

Nearly three years later, things are not only not doing better economically, with the entire world now engaged in outright, or quasi QE (with helicopter money to follow as Adair Turner infamous warned) just to support global asset prices, but the very emerging markets that made up the BRICs, have devolved to a state of economic freefall. And nowhere is this more obvious than in Goldman’s decision to pull the plug on the infamous fund that bears the name of Goldman’s most bullish acronym in history.

According to Bloomberg, Goldman’s bank’s asset-management unit folded its money-losing BRIC fund, which invests in Brazil, Russia, India and China, and merged it last month with a broader emerging-market fund. Goldman Sachs pulled the plug on the nine-year-old product because it doesn’t expect “significant asset growth in the foreseeable future,” according to a filing to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

The BRIC fund lost 21% in the five years through Oct. 23, the last trading day before the merger. Its assets declined to $98 million at the end of September after peaking at $842 million in 2010, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.