Stefano Rocca Parmenides: Qatar takes over the world. This is Qatar: "a nation that has already spun natural resources into mind-blowing wealth and outsize global clout in just one generation -- and that now looks set to transform itself again. The pintsize power, contained on a peninsula that is smaller than Connecticut and juts out from Saudi Arabia into the Persian Gulf, is the world's leading exporter by far of liquefied natural gas, thanks to immense offshore reserves. As a result, the fewer than 250,000 native Qataris who make up the country's population -- grandchildren of pearl fishermen -- are now the world's richest people, with an average annual income of about $100,000. They are also the world's most brazen investors -- in property, art, television, sports, mining, and banking. They aggressively snapped up many of those assets at fire-sale prices in the wake of the Great Recession, a once-in-a-lifetime buying opportunity for countries, like Qatar, with cash to burn."