Nouveau Riche

According to research firm Jones Lang LaSalle, nouveau riche Americans use more than $12 billion on foreign profitable real estate ventures last year, almost double the amount they invested in 2004. Meanwhile, American investment in abroad businesses has nearly doubled, too, since 2002. So when it was enlisted by a team of top reporters to find out what, and where, the most interesting new business opportunities are today. They returned with a dozen stories that describe nouveau riche ventures in unlikely places - from starting a coffee commerce in Rwanda to discovering the next great cabernet in Greece. They also found opportunities in Brazil (delivering Wi-Fi to coastal resorts), China (remodeling homes), and Russia (creating a social network for millionaires). Their goal isn't just to show where the newest business trends are converging, but to coax more of you armchair entrepreneurs out of your Aeron. The ideas supplied the rationales, and even some how-to guidelines from local experts. Russia's economy may be slowing, but not for its upper class. With oil cash having flooded the nation during the 1990s, Moscow now boasts the highest concentration of billionaires of any capital city in the world. The nouveau riche population of millionaires grew 17 percent last year and now tops 103,000, according to a recent study by Merrill Lynch. These increasingly flush Russians, who enjoy subsidized housing and low taxes, have not reusable incomes that dwarf those of Westerners.