Richistan (a place where rich people live)
“Richistan” (“rich” with a “-stan” suffix) is a place where rich people live. The term was popularized by Wall Street Journal writer Robert Frank in his book, Richistan: A Journey Through the American Wealth Boom and the Lives of the New Rich (2007). Frank wrote in the Wall Street Journal on June 5, 2007:
“The wealthy weren’t just getting wealthier — they were forming their own virtual country. They were wealthier than most nations, with the top 1% controlling $17 trillion in wealth. And they were increasingly building a self-contained world, with its own health-care system (concierge doctors), travel system (private jets, destination clubs) and language. ( ‘Who’s your household manager?’ ) They had created their own breakaway republic — one I called Richistan.”
“Can the Richistan people still invest in the Middleclassistan stock market?” was cited in print on an Internet bulletin board in June 2006, or slightly before the book’s publication. “Richistanians”—people who live in Richistan—was cited in print in August 2007.
Wikipedia: -stan
The suffix -stan (Persian: ـستان -stān) is Persian for “place of” or “country”.
The suffix also appears in the names of many regions, especially in Central and South Asia, areas where ancient Indo-Iranian peoples were established; in Indo-Iranian, however, it is also used more generally, as in Persian and Urdu rigestân (ریگستان) “place of sand, desert”, Pakistan “land of the pure” and golestan (گلستان) “place of flowers, garden”, Hindi devasthan (“place of devas, temple”), etc.
CNBC
Robert Frank
CNBC Reporter and Editor
Robert Frank is an award-winning journalist, best-selling author and a leading authority on the American wealthy. He joined CNBC in May 2012 as a reporter and editor.
Prior to CNBC, Frank worked at The Wall Street Journal for 18 years, serving as a foreign correspondent in London and Singapore, and later covering Wall Street and corporate scandals. For eight years, he was the paper’s Wealth Reporter, covering the lives, culture and economy of the new rich.
Frank is the author of two books: “Richistan,” a New York Times best-seller, and “The High-Beta Rich,” released in 2011. His blog, The Wealth Report, was named by Time magazine as one of America’s most influential financial blogs.
Google Groups: alt.fan.cecil-adams
A simple question
Kevin
5/16/06
(...)
They’d be rich per capita, but would be a poor country, most of the investment in the US is in the hands of the middle class. Can the Richistan people still invest in the Middleclassistan stock market? I’m gonna say no, since that would be using Middleclassistan SEC and other resources. Can Richistan people afford to enforce intellectual property rights agreements with China?
OCLC WorldCat record
Richistan : a journey through the American wealth boom and the lives of the new rich
Author: Robert Frank
Publisher: New York : Crown Publishers, ©2007.
Edition/Format: Book : English : 1st ed
Database: WorldCat
Summary:
Journeys inside the world of America’s new breed of multimillionaires to explore the real world of new money and its influence on American culture, society, and politics.
The Wall Street Journal
June 5, 2007, 12:32 PM
Why Richistan? Why Now?
By Robert Frank
Today marks the release of my book Richistan, so I thought I’d answer two questions many of you have emailed me over the past few weeks: “What’s with the title?” and “What’s so new about the rich getting richer?”
The title comes from a chance meeting I had a few years ago at a yacht show in Florida. I was walking along the docks, marveling at hundreds of giant boats parked in the marina. I had seen plenty of yachts before, but never so many at once. I got to talking with a yacht owner from Texas, and as he looked out over the boats he said: “You look at all these boats and you’d think everyone was making loads of money. It’s like it’s a different country.”
The words stuck with me. The wealthy weren’t just getting wealthier — they were forming their own virtual country. They were wealthier than most nations, with the top 1% controlling $17 trillion in wealth. And they were increasingly building a self-contained world, with its own health-care system (concierge doctors), travel system (private jets, destination clubs) and language. (“Who’s your household manager?”) They had created their own breakaway republic — one I called Richistan.
New York (NY) Times
Lifestyles of the Rich
By ALEX BEAM
Published: June 10, 2007
All good journalism is really travel writing. You prepare for a serious story the way a foreign correspondent would. You buy the maps, you learn the language, you hang out with the locals — not just the taxi drivers! — and then you write.
That’s what Robert Frank has done. He writes the Wealth Report column for The Wall Street Journal. (Who writes the Euchred by Capitalism column, I wonder?) In his new book, “Richistan,” he posits the existence of a little-known country within our country. This “parallel country of the rich was once just a village, he argues, but now it’s an entire nation.
CounterPunch
AUGUST 02, 2007
In Richistan: Fantastic Wealth for a Few; Steady Decline for Many
The Return of the Robber Barons
by PAUL CRAIG ROBERTS
(...)
Meanwhile the rich are getting much richer and luxuriating in the most fantastic conspicuous consumption since the Gilded Age. Robert Frank has dubbed the new American world of the super-rich “Richistan.”
In Richistan there is a two-year waiting list for $50 million 200-foot yachts. In Richistan Rolex watches are considered Wal-Mart junk. Richistanians sport $736,000 Franck Muller timepieces, sign their names with $700,000 Mont Blanc jewel-encrusted pens. Their valets, butlers (with $100,000 salaries), and bodyguards carry the $42,000 Louis Vuitton handbags of wives and mistresses.
Richistanians join clubs open only to those with $100 million, pay $650,000 for golf club memberships, eat $50 hamburgers and $1,000 omelettes, drink $90 a bottle Bling mineral water and down $10,000 “martinis on a rock” (gin or vodka poured over a diamond) at New York’s Algonquin Hotel.
Google Books
The High-Beta Rich:
How the Manic Wealthy Will Take Us to the Next Boom, Bubble and Bust
By Robert Frank
new York, NY: Crown Business
2011
Pg. 56:
As for the Wall Street bankers, they remain a small minority in Richistan, even if they make a lot of headlines.
The Indian Express
No Good Guys in Richistan
Vijay Prashad : Sat Aug 03 2013, 00:33 hrs
Book: The Billionaire’s Apprentice
Author: Anita Raghavan
Publisher: Hachette
Price: Rs 499
Pages: 512
Anita Raghavan’s engaging book tells the story of three South Asian men whose lust for money derailed their reputations. Galleon’s Raj Rajaratnam and McKinsey’s Rajat Gupta and Anil Kumar plunged head-first into the world of Wall Street, trading corporate secrets for vast fortunes. They lived in Richistan, the country that provided them with a false sense of immunity from basic human values.
Daily Mail (UK)
How London turned into Richistan: The city with more super-rich than anywhere else proves Putin had a point when he taunted PM about losing his capital to oligarchs
. London’s most expensive properties bought up by foreign billionaires
. Capital has more than 4,000 individuals with more than £20 million per head
. Overseas investors are ‘taking over’ London with part-time homes
By MARK HOLLINGSWORTH
PUBLISHED: 16:31 EST, 7 September 2013 | UPDATED: 04:38 EST, 9 September 2013