newly rich.

The government of Libya, flush with oil, has amassed $40 billion and is ready to put it in play on Wall Street. China recently acquired a huge stake in one of the biggest names in U.S. finance. Tiny Qatar is adding $1 billion a week to its investment coffers and is trying to buy the leading grocer in Britain. Developing nations, especially in Asia and the Middle East, are aggressively stockpiling some of the largest concentrations of investment money in history and have become nouveau riche. The cash hoards, called sovereign wealth funds, are controlled not by state-run companies or private investors but by governments.The increase in oil prices widened the fiscal surplus of GCC economies to a record high. From 2002 to 2008, an estimated $1.5 trillion in surplus was accumulated, leading GCC members to embark on a mission to diversify their economies. The focus was on developing and improving infrastructure overall, which had suffered from decades of under-investment. Government efforts concentrated on developing oil and gas, the power sector and transport infrastructure. The private sector, for its part, concentrated on residential, commercial and tourism real estate projects.This has made many people nouveau riche.The number of people who have become nouveau riche has increased dramatically