RIGA, LATVIA — Like other Latvians, Ralfs Jansons has been on an economic rocket ride that has taken him from Soviet Union austerity to free-market nirvana.
As a boy in communist-era Riga, Jansons' family lived in a communal apartment with two families that peddled illegal liquor and sometimes stole his clothes. Today, Jansons, 36, drives a Toyota Land Cruiser, lives in a posh downtown flat and handles real estate for an investment firm with a $5 billion portfolio.
But as the boom that transformed Latvia and its Baltic neighbors winds down, Jansons and his countrymen are left pondering two questions: Are tough times ahead, and how tough will they be?
