Brazil`s "boomtown"

Brazil`s "Boomtown" São Paulo may not have the distinction of being Brazil`s capital city, or even its most beloved - those two honours go to Brasília and Rio respectively. But, with the city`s stock exchange, the BOVESPA, now the fourth largest in the world, Mexico City`s status as Latin America`s financial powerhouse has been usurped - the region`s Wall Street has moved south of the equator. The city`s financial might is now global: São Paulo is the de facto home of the Mercosur alliance that links South America`s biggest powers in one regional voice on economic an trade issues, and it stands centre stage for Brazil in the BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India and China), the fantastic four of emerging economic powers. Its service industriy continues to churn out a mini-metropolis of business-themed neighbourhoods, turning it into the flashy host for globetrotting business elites. Meanwhile, its homegrown captains of industry represents all sectors of the world economy, from banking to aircraft manufacturing to beer-brewing. And the city`s financial ascendance has been mirrored in its rise as a cosmopolitan metropolis: what started with 19th-century sacks if coffee has turned into a century-long coming-out party to remember.