A billion just isn't what it used to be. There are now 793 billionaires. Three years ago there were only 476.

The more exciting story is these emerging markets. The U.S. stock market was quite a laggard with only a 1 percent increase.

The global economy has been growing the last two years at rates not seen since World War II, fuelled by a commodities boom with a whiff of inflation.

While the United States still dominates this list, 2006 really belongs to some of the more emerging markets, and no country more than India.

Russia continues to astound. For a long time there were questions about where they got their money ... but now the story is just the enormous wealth that is being created from strong commodities markets there.

Somehow, they have been able to skirt that.