(Smart Money) — For the better part of two decades, Bill Potter didn’t venture far with his investments, sticking to stocks and bonds of U.S. companies. But two years ago the California technology entrepreneur came across a number that shocked him: 1.2 billion. That’s the expected size of the middle class two decades from now in emerging-market countries like China and India. Suddenly aware of a powerful new engine for global growth, the 44-year-old started plowing money into overseas investments. It was, he says, “just an obvious decision.”
